


Not Quite Broken

by imdrowninginfootwear



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Child Abuse, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Roller Coaster, F/M, High School, Human, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-26
Updated: 2013-09-18
Packaged: 2017-12-09 12:52:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 42
Words: 123,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/774412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imdrowninginfootwear/pseuds/imdrowninginfootwear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU When Elena comes back to school after a month and a half of vacation, she discovers that a lot has changed. And who's at the center of all of these changes? Damon Salvatore. Something's happened to him that has changed him for the worse and Elena is determined to help fix it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

When Elena Gilbert came back from her vacation that she had gone on with her twin brother, Jeremy, and legal guardian, her Aunt Jenna, she discovered that almost everything had changed while she was gone. The vacation had lasted for the last month of summer as well as the first two weeks of school. Elena was still amazed that Jenna had taken them on a six week trip to Europe and let them miss the first two weeks of school. What could she say, the woman was awesome.

Elena noticed how different things were as soon as she pulled into the parking lot. A few spots down, Damon and Stefan Salvatore were getting out of their 1967 Chevy Camaro. Elena instantly recognized that something was off when Caroline, who had been Damon's girlfriend when Elena left, didn't crawl out of the car after them; Damon and Caroline had used to be attached at the waist. Even though Elena felt how odd this was, and sensed something even stranger in the way that the two guys instantly began to walk in opposite directions without so much as a nod, she still managed to cover that feeling up and convince herself that maybe Caroline was just sick. Or maybe they broke up. So what? And maybe Damon and Stefan, who were both best friends first and brothers second, had just been in a minor fight, or one of them had been in a hurry to get somewhere.

Elena shook it off, then got out of the car with Jeremy and they headed to the office to get their schedules for the year.

Their lockers were on opposite sides of the school, so they went their separate ways down the hallways.

When Elena reached her new locker, number 283, she quickly unlocked it. She had already memorized her new combination.

"Elena!" Came an excited voice from down the hallway as she closed her locker.

That was a voice that Elena would recognize anywhere, she whipped around and began to grin as she spotted her best friend walking towards her.

"Bonnie, hey!" Elena said, glad to finally see her friend again after such a long trip. Sure, they had talked online, but it wasn't the same.

The two friends shared a short embrace before Bonnie asked, "So how was your trip?"

"Amazing," Elena told her. "It's coming back that sucks. Getting up for my first Monday morning back at school after being on the opposite sleep schedule for a month and a half was more than a little difficult. And the fact that everyone else is two weeks ahead of me didn't make it much easier to get out of bed. But then I thought about seeing all of you guys again and that got me up."

"What class do you have first?" Bonnie asked.

"Chemistry," Elena responded and then crinkled her nose at the sight of Bonnie's reaction as she asked. "I'm guessing that there's zero chance that you're in it with me?"

"Sorry," Bonnie said. "But Caroline has it with you."

"Are you sure that she's here today?" Elena asked.

"Yeah, I saw her a few minutes ago," Bonnie responded. "Why?"

"Oh, I just saw Damon and Stefan in the parking lot and she wasn't there," Elena explained.

"That's right," Bonnie said realizing now what the problem was. "I never told you. Damon and Caroline broke up during the summer. Not long after you and Jer left, maybe a week or two.."

"Why? They seemed pretty inseparable to me," Elena pointed out.

"Trouble in paradise I guess," Bonnie responded. "Apparently Damon just suddenly got bored of her and that was it. She's not the only one that he got bored of though. It seems like since he was going into grade twelve he couldn't stand the idea of being associated with anyone younger. Including Stefan."

"Really?" Elena asked, this was probably the most shocking thing that she could have come back to. Even more shocking than if she had come back to find Damon and Matt, who had already hated each other before Damon had decided to hate all of the grade elevens in their group of friends, making out in the middle of the cafeteria.

"Yeah," Bonnie said. "He still talks to Klaus and Tyler sometimes because they're in the same grade, but now he's trying to be some loner badass or something."

"Is it working?" Elena asked. Although she had been in the same social circle as Damon, she personally hadn't overly cared for his arrogance so she didn't talk to him much. She would be able to imagine him as a loner badass if she hadn't seen how he acted when he was teasing his younger brother or hanging out with him. There were always the occasional moments away from douchiness where Damon had actually seemed like a nice guy when he let himself act like a complete idiot with Stefan. Apparently those moments were gone, which was not good news. The only reason that Elena could stand him was because every once in a while she would get that tiny glimpse at a nice guy. But not now, with him acting like a dick to even Stefan. There was no chance at him acting even remotely acceptable anymore in her mind.

"Kind of," Bonnie confirmed. "Stefan has no idea why Damon's acting like that, either. He's still trying to figure that out for himself. And he's different now, too. Now that his best friend slash brother has decided to hardly even talk to him, he's not as happy of a guy. Or as fun to be around."

"You'd think that I'd been gone for a year, not a month and a half," Elena pointed out.

"You'll figure it out quick," Bonnie comforted her.

Before Elena had the chance to argue that she wouldn't, the bell rang loudly.

"I've got to go be the new kid in a class of people that I've been in school with since kindergarten," Elena said with a slight smirk.

"Have fun," Bonnie told her before they headed off in opposite directions towards their classes.

As soon as Elena entered the chemistry room, Caroline leapt from her seat and began to squeal as she pulled Elena into a big hug.

"Hi to you too, Caroline," Elena responded with a small laugh.

"I can't believe that you're actually back," Caroline squealed.

Caroline only let go of her friend when the teacher asked, "Ms. Forbes, Ms. Gilbert can we hug on our own time? I kind of have a class to teach here."

"Sorry," Both girls muttered apologetically. Caroline went and sat back down in her seat, while Elena awkwardly remained standing at the front.

"Elena, I'll catch you up while the class is doing work out of the text book, but first we're taking some notes," Mr. Cranch told her. If only she would really be able to catch up in that short amount of time. "So why don't you go take a seat next to Caroline and try to keep the screeching to a minimum."

Elena nodded, struggling to keep a straight face, and instantly broke into a grin and a silent snicker as soon as her back was to the teacher.

When Elena went to her next class, Language Arts, she found that both Matt and Bonnie were in the same class as her. She managed to catch up a little with Matt during the class. She also gladly discovered that all they had done so far was read through a good chunk of Lord of the Flies and answered questions about each chapter. That was something that Elena would actually be able to catch up on easily. She was a quick reader and unlike a lot of the other kids in her class, she actually enjoyed books.

After Language Arts class it was lunch time.

Elena quickly put her binder in her locker with her new chemistry text book, then headed to the cafeteria. After she bought her lunch, she headed over to sit at her usual table from the year before. It didn't seem as if much had changed at first sight. Bonnie, Caroline, Matt, Tyler, Stefan, Jeremy, Klaus, and Rebekah were already sitting at the table when she arrived. The only person who seemed to be missing was Damon, but it had become very obvious that he wasn't going to show up after Bonnie's speech and the way that no one seemed to think twice about his absence.

During the short lunch hour, Elena discovered just what Bonnie had meant when she had said that Stefan had changed too. Stefan had used to be a pretty fun guy to be around, but now he remained quiet during most conversations and seemed shockingly serious. Most of the others seemed to be the same, acting as if Damon's random decision to ignore them all didn't phase them in the slightest. Apparently they had all had enough time to adjust to the situation, however slight of an adjustment it may have been for some. But for Elena, even if she hadn't been close friends with Damon at all, the wound was still fresh and she couldn't believe that Damon would ever treat Stefan like this for no reason. There was something deeper going on here, she just wasn't sure of what.

She couldn't believe that no one else seemed to care, or even considered that there was something off about all of it, with the exception of Stefan. Elena really didn't want to be the person to take action or do something about this, but she was pretty angry about Damon for hurting Stefan and breaking up with Caroline just for part of his badass act. She decided that the next time that she saw him, she would have to confront him. And from there she imagined that she would probably end up yelling at him for being such a jerk and try to force him to explain what the hell he had been thinking.

She did not see Damon again for the rest of her first day back.

She did, however, find out that she had Stefan, Jeremy, and Tyler, who was a year older but had failed the class the year before, in her History class with Mr. Saltzman after lunch. Tyler wasn't really much of an asset, the only reason that a lot of them put up with Tyler was because he was Matt's best friend. Still, the guy was kind of a jerk a lot of the time and for some reason had it out for Jeremy still just because they had liked the same girl a few years ago.

The closest thing that Elena had to a friend in her last class, gym, was Rebekah. Elena and Rebekah did not have a good history either, they had started out as friends, but through a series of misunderstandings and altogether cattiness from Rebekah, they had become a lot closer to enemies. By the time that gym class was over, Elena had been 'accidentally' hit in the head with a volleyball by Rebekah approximately three times. Elena had managed to spiked one straight into Rebekah's face near the end of class though, which made getting hit herself very much worth it.

When the final bell rang, Elena quickly went to her locker, then headed outside to find Jeremy already waiting at the car. They left the parking lot before either Salvatore brother showed up in it.

By the time that they arrived at home, Elena was beyond exhausted. She would have gone for a nap, but she had a lot of work to do to catch up at school, so instead she laid down on the couch and began to read Lord of the Flies.

By dinner time she had managed to get through half of the chapters that they had already read as a class and was just about finished the questions for chapter three. She actually managed to finish catching up on her Language Arts work after dinner, then began to read through the surprisingly thick booklet of photocopied notes that she had been given during Chemistry that day. Using them she managed to get a few of the assignments done, but wasn't even half done when she gave up and went to bed.

The next day at the start of lunch, Elena discovered that she had forgotten her wallet in the car and went out to grab it so that she could buy her lunch. As she locked her car and began to head back towards the school, she spotted the one and only Damon Salvatore. He was standing by himself on the manicured grass of the school's lawn, sneering over at a group of guys who were playing a loud game of tackle football a couple dozen feet away from him. Last year Damon and Stefan had frequently been in that very same group of loud idiots playing football, yet now he seemed to despise each of them for no reason as well. Elena was really starting to get confused about what the hell was wrong with Damon as she walked over to where he was standing.


	2. Chapter 2

"What do you want?" Damon asked coldly as he turned towards Elena.

"That's nice. I haven't seen you for a month and a half and that's how you greet me," Elena commented sarcastically. "But not surprising considering what I've heard about how you act now."

"Why are you even here?" Damon asked. "We were hardly even friends. More like acquaintances, really." Although Elena knew that this was very true, the way that he said it in a tone of sheer disgust made her furious.

"Don't act like this is me taking the whole you not sitting with us thing personally," Elena began before she was interrupted.

"Because this is clearly you not taking things personally," Damon said sarcastically.

"I _personally_ couldn't care less whether you sit with us or not. I'm not concerned about myself _personally_ ," Elena told him. "But there are other people who do take it personally that you're just shutting them out, like your brother. And I'm here to yell at you for being such a complete jerk to him."

"Do you really think that Stefan needs a little girl like you to fight his battles?" Damon asked. "If I want to ignore my brother at school, then that's my right. I'm not going to let some girl trying to play Mr. ToughGuy change my mind. So why don't you just give up and go inside? I don't want you here."

"Do you seriously enjoy standing around by yourself enough that it's worth completely ignoring everyone just so that you can fall asleep thinking that you're so cool?" Elena asked.

"Don't even pretend for a minute to know about me," Damon said threateningly, holding fierce eye contact with her. "Or why I changed."

Just as Damon turned to look away again, Elena thought she saw just the slightest flicker of pain in Damon's eyes. By the time he finished turning it was gone again, covered up by the arrogance.

"Then why don't you enlighten me on your brilliant reasoning?" Elena challenged.

"Maybe I just got sick of all of you," Damon said, continuing to look away.

"No," Elena said surprising herself with how sure she was. "Something happened that made you start acting like this."

"Really? And what was that, Elena?" Damon said turning to glare into her eyes once again, Elena noticed the pain hidden just below the surface.

"I don't know," Elena responded. "That's the thing, no one does because you're too damn stubborn to talk to anyone. Do you really think that everything will be fine if you turn into loner boy and hurt other people? I think that the real reason that you're pushing everyone away is because you want someone to fight back. All you want is the attention and to know that someone actually cares about what you do."

"And let me guess, you want to be that person," Damon said angrily. "I don't want you to be. You're wrong, the reason that I'm ignoring people isn't because I want them around. I'm ignoring people because I don't want them around. Stop over-analyzing things and use your common sense."

"Fine," Elena said angrily as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Keep up the tough guy act. But at some point you're going to need to talk to someone. Do yourself a favour and actually talk to someone instead of going off and doing something stupid that ends up making whatever the hell is going on with you even worse."

Damon rolled his eyes at this and watched Elena walk away.

After school, Stefan had a football practice so Damon drove home alone. Stefan had always been into organized sports, while Damon had used to enjoy football, but never played on an actual team. Damon kind of wished that he was on the team as he drove home. At least then he would have somewhere to go instead of going home. That was the last place that Damon wanted to drive now, but he didn't particularly have any other option unless he stayed to watch his brother's two hour practice. But Damon didn't want to sit on the uncomfortable bleachers for that long, he wanted to go home to his room and sleep until it would be time to pick his brother up from practice. Maybe he would get lucky and his dad wouldn't be home or would be in one of his rare good moods.

As Damon turned into his driveway, he noticed that his father's rusted old truck was still there. Almost all hope diminished right at that moment. Damon braced himself as he slowly walked up the driveway and opened the door as slowly as he could.

He actually managed to make it more than halfway across the house undetected. As he headed down the hallway towards the doorway for his room, a different door opened right in front of him.

His father, Giuseppe Salvatore, walked out of the bathroom already drunk at four in the afternoon. Damon was sure that he had been drunk all day though.

Damon attempted to step around his father, only to be stopped by an arm that blocked off the hallway just in time.

Damon stopped, holding back the strong urge to groan. He had been so close.

"Where do you think you're going?" Giuseppe asked.

"My room," Damon growled back even though he knew that it wouldn't help things.

"You aren't going anywhere, you little shit," Giuseppe told him. Damon went silent, he had no idea what he had supposedly done this time to make him deserve what was about to come, but he knew better than to argue when his father was this angry. Arguing only ever made the beatings worse. "One of your teachers called. He said that you're failing history already. What are you, stupid?"

Damon felt a strong blow to the chest. His father hardly ever hit him where people would be able to see, only when he was too pissed off to think. Guiseppe had learned not to go for the face quickly after giving Damon a black eye that Stefan wouldn't stop asking about. Damon hadn't told him what had happened though. He didn't want Stefan to know about it, and he certainly didn't want Stefan getting involved and making things worse or getting himself hit. Stefan wasn't the screw up like Damon was, Giuseppe didn't think that he deserved the beatings like Damon did.

"I asked you a question!" Giuseppe snarled before hitting his son once again. "Are you stupid?"

"No," Damon responded quickly as he clutched at his stomach.

"Then why are you failing history class two weeks into the school year?" Giuseppe asked.

"I didn't hand in one of the assignments," Damon told him. "I won't be failing when I do."

"Then you'd better go finish it and hand it in," His father said aggressively. "Before you make me any madder." As he went to walk past his son, he raised his hand causing Damon to flinch away. Giuseppe laughed a little at this, "That's what I thought."

Once his father had gone back downstairs, Damon headed to his room relieved. He had been expecting the beating to be worse after his father had found out that he was failing. He had actually gotten off fairly easy. Damon just wasn't looking forward to when his father would find out that he had been lying. There was no assignment that he hadn't handed in, he was failing because his work was bad. Damon had barely made any effort while working in that class, something he regretted now.

Damon locked the door to his room behind himself, then set an alarm on his phone and laid down to attempt to sleep until it was time to pick Stefan up from practice.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day at lunch as Damon sat outside by himself, some sort of movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He looked over to find Elena headed straight towards him. Of course.

"Go away," Damon told her, even though he knew that she wouldn't listen to him. He figured that it was worth a try anyways.

"I will," Elena said as she stopped right in front of him. "But first I came to see if I could convince you to stop being an asshat and come back to the caf."

"Sorry," Damon said with a smirk that showed that he clearly was not even the slightest bit sorry. Or so Elena thought.

"So you're just going to keep ignoring your brother and let him be miserable?" Elena asked judgmentally.

"Yup," Damon told her. It was better to have Stefan miserable because Damon was ignoring him than to have him happy to have Damon around, but getting the same abuse as him at home because of it.

"You do realize that I'm not going to give up until you come back, right?" Elena asked.

"Why? You don't even like me," Damon pointed out. "And you do realize that I am never going back, right?"

"Yeah, well I'm not giving up on you," Elena warned. "There used to be an actual decent side to you, but now you've completely hidden it far away. But it's still in there and I am going to find it."

"Good luck with that," Damon called after her as she walked away.

During last class, Damon had History with Mr. Saltzman. Or Alaric as he preferred to be called. It was the class that Damon had been dreading all day. He would have skipped, but he knew that it would only lead to another phone call home and his chances of passing that class lessening.

The actual class wasn't that bad, they just took notes all class, and this time Damon even copied them down. It was when Alaric asked him to stick around for a minute after class that Damon started to feel that things were going downhill. Yet Damon still stayed after class in the hopes that he wouldn't be getting anymore phone calls home soon.

"Look you seem like a good enough kid," Alaric started causing Damon to groan on the inside. He hated being called a kid and he was sick of the 'you could be a fantastic student if you just applied yourself a little more' speeches. "But let's face it, your marks in this class are crap." That was a new approach. "From what I've seen you're not one of the useless dumbasses who shows up to class just to try to act cool in front of the rest of the class and not actually do anything. So I'm going to give you a second chance. But you screw this up and it doesn't hurt me, just you. If you do this assignment-" Alaric grabbed a paper off of his desk and handed it to Damon. "And you hand it in next Monday with some actual decent work on it, then I'd be willing to give you extra credit marks to boost you up to fifty percent. But if you want to be one of the dumbasses, then be my guest."

Damon looked down at the paper in shock, he had been expecting a speech that went a little something like, "You're a good kid, but if you want to be a good student then you need to take your career as a student more seriously. That means that you need to work harder in the class to get higher mark on your future assignments if you want to pass because there is nothing that I can do about the bad marks that you have already received. If you want to get your marks up, there's nothing that I can do to help you. I can't make you pass, you have to work for it yourself." Instead, he had discovered that Alaric was a pretty cool guy.  
"Thanks," Damon mumbled. He felt a huge weight come off of his shoulders. Sure he was still failing and would have to do that fairly large looking assignment, but he also had a way that made it possible for him to get his marks up before his dad checked in with Mr. Saltzman to see if he was doing better or not.

Luckily for Damon, Stefan was home all that night so he didn't get any new beatings and managed to actually get a good chunk of Mr. Saltzman's assignment done.

The next day at lunch, Elena came and tried to make him sit at the table again. The same thing happened on Thurday and Friday.

As Damon lay awake in bed Friday night, he worried about the rest of the weekend. Stefan was going over to Matt's at around noon the next morning and was staying the night over there with Jeremy. Which meant approximately twenty hours alone with his jackass of a dad. It was pretty much a guarantee that they would get in a fight over something in that time and Damon needed to be at home to finish his extra credit work.

After Damon dropped his brother off at Matt's house he went home and went to his room to try and finish the assignment while his dad was still relatively sober. After a few hours he got up and risked the trip downstairs to go try and find something to drink. He grabbed a bottle of water and turned to leave the room only to walk straight into his father, whose glass fell to the floor and shattered, spilling his drink everywhere.

If Damon hadn't already known that he was in deep shit for that, he certainly would have by the look of pure rage on his father's face. As his father hit him in the chest with blow after blow, Damon held his eyes shut and remained silent. He sat there waiting for it to be over, desperately struggling to hold back the traitorous tears that he could feel fighting to escape his eyes.

His father gave him one last kick to the gut before grabbing a new drink and muttering, "You'd better clean up your mess."

As soon as Giuseppe was out of the room, Damon got up from the ground and headed straight for the front door, the stupid tears running down his face now. As Damon realized that he had left his car keys in his jacket pocket in his room and that he couldn't go back in to get them, he began to feel very glad that it was dark out. That way if he passed anyone that he knew, they hopefully wouldn't be able to see that he was crying. Damon Salvatore was not supposed to cry.

Damon had no idea where he was going as he began to walk, just that he had to get away from that place and quickly. He walked around, thinking that he was wandering, for a few minutes before he found himself standing on the front lawn of a house that he recognized.

Damon didn't know why he had come there, or how his subconscious had convinced him to unknowingly walk to Elena Gilbert's house. He had never been inside, but he recognized it from times that he had dropped Stefan off there.

He slowly walked towards the door, hating the fact that she had been right about everything. He froze at the door for a few seconds, trying to get up the courage to knock at the door. Just as he went to turn and wimp out, the door opened to reveal Elena. She had seen him outside through a window upstairs, and come to see what he was doing there.

Damon just stood there, feeling completely vulnerable as tears ran down his face. He shivered, unsure of whether it was from the cold or something else.


	4. Chapter 4

Elena hesitated for less than half a second before stepping forward and wrapping her arms tightly around Damon. Normally Damon wasn't much of a hugger, but he also wasn't much of a crier. He didn't pull away from the embrace though, he hadn't realized how much he had really needed someone until that exact moment as Elena's small arms held him tight.

When Elena finally let go of him, several long seconds later, she didn't question what had happened or brag about being right.

Instead she simply said, "Come inside." She saw the hesitation on Damon's face. "Jenna's on a date and Jer's at Matt's. It's just me here."

Damon nodded at her, then sheepishly took a few steps inside. It was strange seeing Damon acting like this. Even before she had left on vacation, Damon had never acted sheepish and she had certainly never seen him cry. Elena wasn't really sure what to do or say, not that Damon seemed to have any idea himself.

"I don't even know how I got here," Damon told her as he wiped at his face. "I was just walking and somehow I ended up here.. So I guess you win, you were right." It didn't feel much like winning to Elena.

"Do you want to talk about?" Elena asked.

"Not really," Damon replied and was glad when Elena didn't push any further.

"I know that you think that I don't understand," Elena told him. "And yeah, I probably don't understand all of whatever it is. But I do understand wanting to push everyone away and convincing yourself that letting other people in will just make everything worse. That's how I was after my parents died, I think it's why I cared so much about trying to get you to talk to someone."

Damon didn't know how to respond to that. He wanted to tell her about everything, but he couldn't quite make himself say the words. He was too afraid. Afraid of absolutely everything that could happen if anyone found out.

"I thought that I was okay," Damon admitted. "I thought that I could handle it all by myself and be fine. But I was wrong. I can't live like this anymore and I have no idea what to do to get rid of it." Although Elena had no idea what 'it' was, she didn't push. If Damon wasn't able to tell her, then asking more would just make him run away. "I just want it to stop."

Elena stared into Damon's tear-filled eyes for she didn't know how long. The eye contact only broke when her cell phone began to ring loudly from upstairs.

"I'd better go see who that is," Elena told him. "Sorry."

She walked up the stairs with Damon awkwardly following a few steps behind her. Elena walked into her room and Damon froze in the door frame. She picked up her phone off of her desk to find that it was Bonnie calling. She hit ignore, then turned her phone on silent and put it down on the desk.

"You aren't going to get that?" Damon asked from where he stood in the doorway. He had managed to stop crying now, but still felt terrible.

"Nah," Elena responded as she sat down on her bed. "Bonnie'll call the house if it's important." She then seemed to notice how Damon was still waiting just outside of her room and laughed lightly. "You know you can come in here. It's not a minefield or anything."

"I didn't think it was a minefield," Damon defended himself as he took a few steps in to sit on the bed next to Elena. "I just figured that.." He trailed off suddenly, then rolled his eyes and chuckled at himself a little. "..I'm just buckets of fun today.."

"Well if you hadn't shown up I would have still been working on chemistry homework, getting nowhere on the stupid lab analysis," Elena responded. "So out of the two options I think that this is the more exciting one-"

"My tears are exciting to you?" Damon asked as he raised an eyebrow at her.

"No," Elena responded defensively. "The fact that you actually came here instead of not letting anyone even the slightest bit in is exciting. You came here to talk to me instead of going off and doing something stupid. It means that I'm making a hell of a lot more progress with you than I am with my chem assignment."

"So now you're comparing me to your homework?" Damon asked with a slight smile. "And I hardly even talked to you, Elena. I said like two things and you have no idea what they even meant. And who says that coming here wasn't me going off and doing something stupid?"

"Still a major improvement over you pretending that there isn't anything going on and that I'm just crazy," Elena pointed out.

Damon couldn't believe how much he wanted to tell Elena everything. That wasn't something that he had expected when he had shown up. But now that he was there, part of him felt like if he was going to cry in front of her anyways that he may as well tell her everything. But a much larger part told him that the first part was stupid and that if he told her that she would think that he deserved the beatings.

Elena noticed that Damon had become strangely silent all of a sudden. He seemed to be trapped in a world of his own inside of his head.

As Damon sat there, it suddenly began to sink in that he had just left his house with the broken glass spilled all over the floor. When he got home, his father was going to be extra pissed that he had just left unannounced and not cleaned up the broken glass shards and spilled alcohol. Damon knew that he couldn't handle going home to that tonight, even if staying out for longer would only make things worse.

Elena watched as he remained silent for a while longer, his smile had fallen away a few minutes ago and she could see a mixture of fear and pain in his eyes. Finally she couldn't stand it anymore and had to say something to snap him out of it.

"Damon." She said, surprised by how quietly the name had come out. She tried again, raising her voice a little as she asked, "Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Damon asked, turning to look at her in confusion as his mind slowly dragged itself out of its trap and began to process Elena's words. "..I don't even know."

When Jenna Sommers came home at about one in the morning, she quietly walked up the stairs in the dark, being reminded very much of her days as a teenager when she had used to sneak back into the house almost nightly.

As she walked past Jeremy's room, she turned to look inside out of habit, despite the fact that she knew that he was at a sleepover at Matt's house. When she spotted a shape in the bed she froze in the doorway in shock. A few seconds later the shape rolled over and she was staring straight into the eyes of a complete stranger. He looked just as shocked to see her standing there as she was to find him there. They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, then Jenna slowly backed out of the doorway. As soon as she was out of sight of the stranger, she literally ran down the hallway and flung herself into Elena's room and flicked the light on.

"What?" Elena asked groggily at the sight of her clearly frazzled aunt.

"Quick question," Jenna told her. "Do you know the strange boy who I just saw in Jeremy's bed, or is he just one creepy ass serial killer?" Elena could tell that she was serious.

"That's Damon," Elena responded as she sat up in bed and leaned back against her headboard. Damon had asked if he could stay there and sleep on the couch, so she had told him that he could take Jeremy's bed since the other boy wasn't there to use it anyways.

"So not a serial killer..?" Elena could tell that her aunt was waiting for actual verbal confirmation that Damon wasn't going to murder her in her sleep.

"Well there always is that small chance that one day we'll find out he is and everyone will be saying 'I should have known. I should have seen the warning signs, but I never thought that he could really be capable of something like this'," Elena responded with a smirk.

"Okay this is not funny, alright?" Jenna told her, although a smile was forming on her own face and she was beginning to giggle a little. "I just saw a super scary movie and came home to find a random stranger just laying there. And he was staring at me. And stop looking at me like that! It really was that scary, okay? I'm not a wimp, my date was more scared by the movie than I was. It was not a good date."

Damon barely managed to not laugh from where he was laying in Jeremy's bed. He could hear the conversation clearly from where he was and was surprised that Jenna hadn't kicked him out yet. Or even asked why he was there, just if he was a serial killer or not.

"So just because the guy got scared at this terrifying movie it's a bad date?" Elena asked.

"No, I'm thinking that it was probably the part when we were walking home and he heard a noise behind a dumpster while we were walking past it, and then pushed me towards it. That pretty much guaranteed that there wouldn't be a second date. He thought that it was a killer and actually told it to take me instead of him. It turned out to be a stray cat," Jenna told her niece.

"No," Elena said, laughing despite her best efforts not to. "He did not seriously do that."

"Oh yes, he did," Jenna told her. "Sad thing is that wasn't even the worst date I've been on. I'm like a bad date magnet. I once was set up on a blind date with a not so slim guy who ate like a total pig the whole night, but told me multiple times that I needed to be watching what I eat that I could stand to lose a few pounds. Oh, and then there was my first date with your uncle when we were in college and he took me to his mom's house for spaghetti night. And I was the third wheel to him and his mom. Seriously, he was a major momma's boy. Probably still is. I sat there awkwardly listening to him and his mom have conversations about people that I didn't know the whole night. I don't know why I ever went on a second date with him. Or why I married that moron. But at the time I was apparently blind because I still thought he was dreamy."

"I'm pretty sure that trying to sacrifice you to a murderer is worse than being the third wheel on a date with the guys mom or being judged for your eating," Elena pointed out.

"He called me fat, Elena," Jenna said seriously. "You don't just call a girl fat on a first date. Or ever. Especially when you're the only fat one there. And I'm pretty sure that if he had thought that he had encountered a serial killer that he would have told them to take me instead, too. Pretty soon I'm just going to give up on men. If you think that they're bad now just wait until they grow up and maintain the same maturity level but become way more boring. Or maybe that's just the jerks that I attract. I swear I am literally a loser magnet. Or maybe I'm just one of the losers, none of them seem to know that they are."

"You're not one of the losers," Elena told her.

"I have been set up with multiple Walmart greeters. _Multiple._ As in more than one, Elena," Jenna said dramatically. "Is it too much to ask for a guy who has a job that isn't something super lame like an accountant? Or a guy who has a job that a high school student couldn't have? I just want a guy who's smart, and pretty, and funny, and has a decent job, and isn't a total dick, and doesn't try to push me in front of a serial killer. Is that really too much to ask? Because I can't seem to find a guy with even half of that stuff."

"Then maybe you should stop going on dates with every guy that asks you out in the produce section of the grocery store," Elena suggested.

"That is where I meet a lot of them, isn't it?" Jenna asked, just noticing that. "Do you think that they're part of some secret dork club that just hangs out there waiting for a girl to show up?"

"It seems a little unlikely," Elena pointed out.

"That would have at least made a good story," Jenna complained.

"I said that it seemed a little unlikely, not that it's impossible. If you want to believe that there's a secret club of losers designed to pick up girls like you at the grocery store, then that's your choice," Elena told her.

"I do choose to believe it," Jenna told her with a grin. "Only I choose to believe that the group wasn't designed to pick up girls _like me_ at the grocery store. I decide to believe that there is a loser club designed for the the sole purposes of picking _me_ up at the grocery store."

"Oh, so that doesn't seem stalker serial killery at all, but Damon does?" Elena asked.

"He was just laying there staring at me," Jenna stated defensively. "You're sure that I'm not going to wake up in a dirty bathtub two towns over missing a kidney tomorrow?"

"Nah, Damon's more into selling livers on the black market, they're worth more," Elena responded with a smirk.

"Cute," Jenna said sarcastically. "I'm going to bed now, lets both pretend that I never ran in here and woke you up because I was afraid of a teenage boy. And never tell anyone about it ever."

"Good night, Jenna," Elena said with a slight laugh.

"Good night, Elena," Jenna said as she turned Elena's light off and headed down the hallway towards her own room.

Damon couldn't believe that Elena's aunt was actually okay with him sleeping there without asking a single question about why he was there. From what he had heard, Jenna sounded like a pretty cool aunt.


	5. Chapter 5

Late the next morning, Elena and Jenna were sitting in the kitchen pouring themselves bowls of Frosted Flakes when Jeremy came home and headed straight up the stairs.

"This should go well when he gets to his room," Elena said sarcastically as she grabbed a carton of milk out of the fridge.

"That boy can certainly sleep," Jenna said as she took the carton from her niece. Loud and quick footsteps were coming back down the stairs. "Here we go."

"Why did I walk into my room to find Damon Salvatore in my bed?" Jeremy asked as he entered the kitchen. Meanwhile Damon, who had been woken up when Jeremy had entered his room, was sitting at the top of the stairs listening to the conversation.

"Jeremy, I didn't know that you were into guys," Jenna said with a smirk as she asserted her position as mature adult of the household.

Elena rolled her eyes at her aunt, then said, "He came over last night and it got late so I said that he could use your bed. It's not like you were using it."

"So you're just fine with her having guys spend the night here?" Jeremy asked.

Now it was Jenna's turn to roll her eyes before she replied, "Ooh, how scandalous. Elena had a boy sleeping in a different room of the same house. As long as he's not in her bed then I'm fine. Besides, it's Elena." She said the last part in a tone that showed she was sure that Elena wouldn't be bringing boys over and sleeping with them while Jenna was just down the hall. Or in general.

Damon smirked at the top of the stairs, both from what Jenna had said and the fact that Elena hadn't told her family why Damon was really there, and then got up and began to walk downstairs towards the kitchen.

"I like her," Damon said with a smirk as he gestured to Jenna. "I might not murder her after all."

"You heard that?" Jenna asked with a groan. She had been pretty sure that he had before, but it was a whole other level of embarrassing for him to bring it up.

"Yeah," Damon confirmed. "You were surprisingly convinced that I had some plot to kill you specifically. What if I was just here to kidnap Elena or kill her?"

"Then you were doing a pretty bad job because you showed up before I did and instead of taking her  _or_ killing her you chose to take a nap," Jenna responded.

"No one ever said that I was good at being a serial killer," Damon pointed out.

"What the hell are you people talking about?" Jeremy asked as he grabbed two more bowls out of the cupboard and handed one to Damon.

* * *

After breakfast, Damon unenthusiastically went home to finish the assignment that Alaric had given him. As he walked, he hoped that Stefan would be home and that if he was, that their father wouldn't be angry enough to hit him in front of Stefan.

Elena spent the rest of her day trying to catch up on her pile of history homework.

* * *

On Monday morning, Elena pulled into the parking lot to see Damon and Stefan getting out of the car. Damon was sporting a big black eye. Suddenly Elena was pretty sure that she understood what was going on with Damon. Just wanting whatever it was to stop, not wanting to go home, showing up on Monday with a black eye..

She quickly got out of the car and headed over to the Salvatore brothers before Damon could run off somewhere. As she did so, she handed Jeremy the keys so that he could lock the car. By the time that Elena had gotten over there, Stefan was gone and Damon had turned to leave. She stopped him by grabbing his shoulder.

Damon turned around to discover that his one goal of the day, to avoid Elena so that she wouldn't see his black eye, had already failed. Before he had the chance to come up with some crappy excuse for what had happened, Elena pulled him into a hug. He knew right then that Elena had for sure figured it out, not that it was difficult after some of the things that he had said to her on Saturday night.

"I guess it's a good thing that Stefan's already used to me ignoring his questions," Damon said once Elena pulled away. He knew that there was no point in trying to deny it.

Elena suddenly had an idea and began to dig through her purse until she pulled out her concealer with a grin. Normally Damon would have argued with the idea of someone trying to put makeup on him, but he figured that it was easier than being asked what had happened to his face all day. So instead of arguing, he just stood perfectly still as she gently covered up the bruising.

When she was done, she stepped back and admired her work as she closed her concealer and shoved it back into her bag.

"There," She said. "You can't even see it at all unless you're really close."

"Thanks," Damon said, glad that instead of trying to talk about what she had found out, Elena simply was helping him hide it from the rest of the school.

"No problem," Elena responded. "I have to go find Bonnie, but I'll see you at lunch." She smirked a little as she walked away.

So, she was planning on acting normal and trying to convince him to go back to the cafeteria at lunch. Damon couldn't believe that she was actually acting this normal instead of freaking out and either ignoring him or constantly giving him a sad, pitying look.

* * *

When lunch came, Damon began to head outside, but froze just as he reached the door to outside. If he went out there, then Elena would just show up and try to force him to go eat in the caf. And if he didn't, then she would just come back the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that, and on, and on, and on. So instead, Damon turned around and headed towards the cafeteria smirking a little at the anticipation of the other's reactions.

When he entered the room, he discovered that everyone except for Elena was already there. She was probably outside looking for him.

"What's this?" Stefan asked as his brother approached the table. "Damon in the cafeteria, did hell freeze over already?"

"Hilarious," Damon said, his voice laced with sarcasm as he sat down in an empty spot next to Stefan. "This is why you're so clearly the funny brother. You're just a laugh riot."

Everyone looked confused by Damon's random appearance, Jeremy a little less than the others since during the weekend he had discovered that apparently Elena and Damon were pals and Damon wasn't really ignoring _everyone_.

"Geez, calm down, all your excitement and chattering is overwhelming me," Damon said sarcastically, which caused the others to snap out of their staring fest. He knew that showing up after a month and a half of pretending that they didn't exist would be a little weird to say the least, but he thought that someone other than Stefan could at least say  _something_.

"Get your own food," Stefan complained as Damon grabbed a handful of fries off of his plate.

"Why would I when yours is right here?" Damon asked as he continued to eat his brother's food.

When Elena approached the table with her lunch, she was more than a little shocked to see Damon there. Elena sat down next to Bonnie and across from Damon.

"For someone who's been trying to make me come here for a week, you sure look surprised that I'm actually here," Damon commented. "I mean, if you want, I could go back outside and sit by myself. And then act all pissy when you show up, then refuse to ever come back here, but.." He trailed off with a tilted smirk.

Everyone other than Jeremy seemed shocked by the news that Elena had been trying to convince Damon to come back. Elena and Damon had barely even been friends using the loosest form of the word before Damon had hated everyone.

Elena rolled her eyes at him as she sarcastically responded, "Yeah, that's exactly what I want. Because you acting like a jerk is just so fun to be around."

"Apparently since you came back every day," Damon responded.

Each person at the table was giving Damon and Elena strange looks now, especially Bonnie and Stefan.

"So that's where you've been running off to every lunch," Bonnie said, smirking a little at her friend. "I just figured that you'd developed a smoking habit or drug problem."

"Yeah, because Elena Gilbert the drug addict just seemed like such a likely possibility," Matt said, laughing a little.

"Be careful what you laugh at," Caroline said with a smirk. "Before she pulls her switchblade out on you."

"You guys are so funny," Elena said sarcastically. "If I pulled a switchblade out I'd just end up cutting myself by accident."

"If you had a pair of safety scissors in your purse, you'd probably end up cutting yourself on them before you could do anything useful with them," Rebekah said boredly from the other side of the table.

"I might get a chunk of your hair cut out first," Elena retorted.

Rebekah sat back and pouted, then started up a side conversation with Klaus and Tyler.

* * *

During Elena's next class, History, Stefan asked her, "So how did you convince Damon to sit with us?"

"I have no idea," Elena said mostly honestly. She did have a small idea, but she wasn't going to go off telling Stefan.

"He barely even talks to me in general anymore and somehow you magically got him to show up," Stefan pointed out. "You must have done something even if you didn't notice."

"Or maybe he just got bored of himself," Elena responded.

* * *

As the bell that ended the last class of the day rang, Damon handed his extra credit assignment into Alaric, who smirked a little as he looked at it.

As Damon headed out to the parking lot, he was amazed by how easily the day had gone compared to his expectations. It definitely helped that he didn't have to be asked about the black eye four hundred times.

"If I'd known that all it would take to make you come back was a girl asking, I would have gotten one to ask a long time ago instead of having Elena decide to when she came back," Stefan commented from where he was already leaning against the car waiting for his brother.

"That's not all that it took," Damon responded. "And I seem to remember having Caroline sent on more than a few occasions at first."

"So then what did it take?" Stefan asked curiously.

Damon ignored the question and instead got into the car and started up the engine waiting for his brother to get in.

"Oh, now we're back to the ignoring thing?" Stefan asked as he sat down in his seat. "That's really mature, Damon."

Damon just remained silent and stared straight out of the front window as he began to drive.

Stefan didn't understand why Damon had begun to act normal at lunch, but now had completely reverted back into jerk mode. It was like he was only normal because Elena was there, which was very strange. What he didn't know was that Damon had been making a large effort to try to act normal in front of Elena that day so that she wouldn't think that he was completely broken after the way that she had seen him on Saturday and what she had found out earlier that morning.


	6. Chapter 6

"So what's going on with you and Damon Salvatore?" Bonnie asked. Elena and Caroline were both over at her house, sitting on the floor of her room.

"And more importantly, why didn't you tell us about it?" Caroline asked with a grin. She had long since gotten over her thing with Damon, which felt like an eternity ago to her.

"There s nothing going on," Elena told them.

"Oh really?" Bonnie asked. "That's why Damon ignored everyone for a month and a half, but then suddenly when you came back and asked him a few times, he comes back and you two are acting like you're the best of friends now."

"No, we're not," Elena argued a little too quickly. "There's nothing going on between us, if there was I would tell you guys. I think he just got bored of being loner boy and needed an excuse to come back where it looked like he was the big hero doing someone else a favour."

"Or he wanted to be your big hero," Caroline said with a smirk. Elena just rolled her eyes.

* * *

The next morning, Elena put makeup over Damon's black eye once again. Stefan was still the only other person who had seen it, and based off of the way that Damon reacted to other questions, Stefan hadn't dared to ask why the black eye had disappeared after they had shown up at school then reappeared later. When your brother is already in a bad mood, asking him if he's wearing makeup usually isn't a good idea.

* * *

Stefan was surprised when at lunch, Damon showed up again. Especially since Damon hadn't said a single word to him since the day before in the parking lot. Only instead of being the chatty guy that he had been at the start of lunch the day before, Damon was quiet all lunch. He didn't say a single word all lunch, but Stefan figured the fact that he was even there was still an improvement over what had become Damon's usual behaviour.

* * *

After lunch, during history class, Tyler was in one of his many jackass moods and decided that he needed to take it out on Jeremy for a change. So he decided to sit in the desk behind him.

In the middle of class, Tyler leaned over his desk to whisper into Jeremy's ear, "Apparently your sister has a thing for jerks. That's why she's buddy-buddy with Damon all of a sudden, right? I doubt that he would mind sharing with me, I think that I might just have to get myself a piece of that."

From the front of the room, Alaric could see Tyler smirking as he said something to Jeremy that caused the younger boy to ball his hands up into fists.

Jeremy turned around and asked, loud enough for the rest of the class to hear, "Is that just your excuse to get into bed with Damon? Because I'm pretty sure that we both know you'd prefer it if there wasn't a girl in the middle."

Before Alaric had the chance to stop them, Tyler had already jumped out of his desk and punched Jeremy in the face. Hard. Jeremy wasted no time before he got up from his own desk and began to fight back.

Elena sat there in shock as her twin brother fought with Tyler in the middle of the classroom while other kids cheered them on. It took both Alaric and Stefan to get them apart.

Once they were separated, Alaric took them to the office and made sure that they were taken to separate sections of the office so that they couldn't start fighting again.

* * *

Jenna Sommers was just putting a load of laundry in the washing machine at three thirty, when the phone began to ring loudly. She ran to go answer it, managing to stub her toe on a chair in the process. She just barely managed to pick it up before it would automatically go to the answering machine.

"Hello?" She answered, out of breath.

* * *

When Jenna reached the school, she ignored the snickering from a few kids in the hallway as she passed them. She was in her laundry day clothes which consisted of a pair of old ratty sweats, a baggy t-shirt, and a black hoodie with her hair tied messily up, but she didn't care. She was too angry that Jeremy had been stupid enough to get into a fist fight in the middle of his History classroom.

She turned into the classroom where she had been told to go, to find Jeremy with his face already bruising, sitting in a desk at the front of the room and a handsome man around her age who had sandy brown hair and hazel eyes. That must be Alaric, Jeremy's teacher who had introduced himself to her on the phone. Jenna was suddenly much more embarrassed by her outfit.

Jeremy snickered a little as he looked at her, "Nice clothes, Jenna."

"You, shut it." Jenna said warningly. "It's laundry day and I wasn't expecting to have to go out in public, but you just had to go get into a fist fight. You're already in enough trouble so stop laughing, and start looking guilty and pretending to be sorry."

Alaric smirked a little and covered his mouth to try keep himself from laughing. A few snickers still got out, but he instantly silenced when Jenna turned to glare at him.

"Sorry," Alaric said, but he still remained smirking a little as he raised his hands in a sign of innocence. "You hang out around a bunch of teenagers all day, you get their sense of humour."

Jenna sat down at a desk next to Jeremy and asked, "Can we just get this over with so I can go home and pretend that I didn't show up looking like this?"

Alaric laughed a little then said, "Sure... Look if it were up to me, we wouldn't be having this meeting, but I kind of have to. Jeremy's not the problem though, that Tyler kid's a bit of a douchebag."

"Are you sure that you're allowed to be saying that?" Jenna asked with a slight smirk.

"Probably not," Alaric commented. "But it's the truth.. Jeremy didn't even throw the first punch and from what I saw, Tyler was bothering him first, too. Honestly, I couldn't see Jeremy getting in any more fights. This meeting's just a stupid formality."

* * *

After school, Stefan had practice and Damon didn't want to go home. So instead, he attempted to nap on the uncomfortable metal bleachers outside. Needless to say, he wasn't successful in his attempt, but it was better than going home by himself when his dad was still pissed about Saturday.

* * *

Elena was sitting on her bed when she heard the front door open. She was shocked when she didn't hear arguing at the bottom of the stairs. She was about to get up and ask Jeremy what the hell had happened in class, when Jenna came into her room and flopped down, face first, onto the end of Elena's bed.

"Do not comment on the outfit," Jenna warned, her voice muffled by Elena's comforter. "I already feel bad enough."

"What happened?" Elena asked, figuring that this was brought on by something more than Jeremy's fight.

"I take back all of my whining about how I'll never find a perfect guy," Jenna said before rolling onto her side to face Elena. "I met one. He was pretty, and smart, and had a decent job, and a sense of humour, and he was nice, and I was dressed like this. And I bet that he wouldn't have even pushed me in front of a serial killer, he seemed more like a beat the crap out of the serial killer kind of guy. And I showed up looking like  _this_. Why couldn't Jeremy have gotten in a fight on a day where I was looking really hot? Or at least on a day that wasn't laundry day?"

"Wait, so this is Alaric that we're talking about?" Elena asked with a grin.

"Yes," Jenna responded with a pout. "Why?"

"Just wondering," Elena said. "You're right, he is nice. Like not shoving you in front of a serial killer nice."

"Shut up," Jenna said with a laugh, throwing a pillow at her niece's face. "Stop rubbing salt in the wound."

"You know, the school's looking for volunteers to chaperone the dance next Friday," Elena said with a grin. "I heard a rumour that he'll be chaperoning, too."

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no," Jenna said quickly. "I am way too embarrassed to show my face around him again."

"Come on, if he's that perfect then you should at least try instead of going back to your gang of stalkers from the grocery store," Elena pointed out. "And besides, I'm signing you up either way and if you want to back out then you'll have to go do it yourself."

"Since when did it become a gang?" Jenna asked. "I thought it was a club, not a gang."

"So is that an okay?" Elena asked.

"That's a fine, but if anything goes wrong and I come home crying, I'm blaming you and reminding you of how this all was your idea and you are a horrible, horrible monster of a teenager," Jenna told her.

"Oh, and one more thing," Elena said, smirking at her aunt. "Everyone's supposed to wear formal wear to the dance, including the chaperones, so I mean at least take it up a step from this. Like maybe wear your pajamas instead."

Jenna began to laugh as she sat up, "That is a low blow."

Elena just laughed with her aunt as Jenna left, feeling a little better about her encounter with one Alaric Saltzman.

* * *

After Jenna left, Elena went to go find Jeremy, who was sitting on the couch playing video games.

"What do you want?" He asked once she sat down next to him.

"I see you're in a good mood," Elena said sarcastically.

"You're surprised that I'm angry after you watched me get in a fight?" Jeremy asked, his eyes never leaving the screen as he spoke.

"Not really," Elena admitted. "I just didn't think that sitting on the couch was a crime worthy of being snapped at."

"But you're not here to sit on the couch," Jeremy pointed out. "You're here to yell at me for getting into a fight and try to figure out why I was stupid enough to get into a fight with a football player a year older than me. Just wanting to sit on the couch and chat is a ruse."

"Okay, maybe it is," Elena said defensively. "But seriously, what were you thinking? Whatever Tyler did or said to you, you do realize that it was just to provoke you, right?"

"And there it is," Jeremy said dramatically. "The Elena is perfect and Jeremy's a mindless screw-up speech. Say that as cynically as you want to, but I did it to defend you. Not because Tyler said something about me."

"Wait, what?" Elena asked. "How is fist fighting Tyler defending me?"

"Because Tyler was saying that he was going to go after you," Jeremy responded. "To put it in more appropriate terms. And we both have heard the stories about Tyler at parties, he doesn't take no for an answer from any girls... So go ahead, finish your speech about just how stupid I am. I mean it's only fair since I gave you the what the fuck is wrong with you speech after I came home to find Damon Salvatore in my bed. Oh wait, that's right.. I didn't give you that speech when I easily could have, instead I acted perfectly nice to him and let it go."

"I didn't know that he said that," Elena said. "Look, I'm sorry that I got mad at you, but you still shouldn't have gotten into a fight with him. It didn't help anything."

"It probably bruised his ego," Jeremy pointed out with a slight smirk.

"And his face," Elena added with a smile. "...You know he's not as bad as you think."

"Who, Tyler?" Jeremy asked in a combination of shock and confusion as he paused his video game and rapidly turned to stare at his twin sister. He thought that Elena hated Tyler. And even if she didn't why would she be defending him when Jeremy had just told her what he had said and he knew that she had heard the stories?

"No," Elena said, offended that her brother would ever come to the conclusion that she was saying Tyler the jackass wasn't that bad. "Damon. I used to think he was a complete idiot, too."

"Oh," Jeremy said, his pulse returning to normal as he turned back to his game and unpaused. "Okay then."

* * *

The next morning, Damon's black eye was on it's fourth day and yet it was still just as dark of a bruise as it had been on Monday.

As Elena put concealer on him in the parking lot, she joked that she should become a professional makeup artist.

"I'm pretty sure that in order to become a professional makeup artist, you have to be able to do more than just put concealer on people, but I could be wrong.." Damon responded, his lip twitching upwards as he spoke.

"You're right," Elena said with a smirk. "I think that I've got some eyeliner in here if you want me to try it out on you."

"You're going to have to take the rest of your makeup over to Bonnie or Caroline," Damon told her with a tilted grin. He didn't bring up Rebekah, since he still knew enough to remember that they hated each other. "Or Stefan, I'm sure he'd be up for a good make-over. He could certainly use one."

"Hey," Elena said. "You need to start playing nice."

"Why?" Damon asked.

"Because he thinks that you hate him," Elena responded. "And you don't have to act like a jerk to everyone all the time."

"It's better if Stefan hates me," Damon said, the grin wiped from his face as he gazed into her eyes with his intense blue ones. "Then he gives up on asking questions and trying to figure out what's going on. And more importantly he stays as the perfect little saint of a child that I could never hope to be. He'll stay as the positive example to use against me instead of being associated with me and getting his ass kicked. If he has to hate me so that he doesn't find out and get the crap beaten out of him, then it's better off that he hates me."

Elena had no idea what to say to that as she stared into his eyes. How was she supposed to argue with logic like that?

"That sucks," Was all that she could come up with, then immediately felt like an idiot for saying the words.

"Yeah," Damon said with a dry, humourless chuckle. "Especially since we used to tell each other practically everything."

Damon knew that he sounded like a girl, but at this point it was a little late to try and look masculine in front of Elena. He hadn't realized just how much he had missed having someone to talk to about all of his problems until he had started to talk to Elena about them.

"Well you can talk to me about stuff," Elena offered. "I know that I might not be Stefan, but I'm better than no one." She crinkled her face a little as she added, "Hopefully."

Damon laughed a little, this time a genuine laugh, "Don't worry, you are."

"Good, because that would have been really awkward if you'd said that I wasn't," Elena said laughing with him.

Damon wondered how Elena really didn't find talk of his dad awkward to begin with, he was amazed by the fact that instead of standing there staring in an awkward silence, she somehow managed to make him laugh.

* * *

They ended up entering the school together and Bonnie raised an eyebrow at Elena once she spotted them. Elena could hear Bonnie's silent and sarcastic, "I thought that there was nothing going on between you two."

They split up then, since Damon's locker was in that hallway and Elena's wasn't. Instead, Elena walked the rest of the way to her locker with Bonnie.

"You totally like him," Bonnie said with a smirk as they walked.

"I do not," Elena argued, she wasn't sure if she was arguing more with Bonnie or herself. She used to think that there was no way in hell that she would ever like someone like Damon Salvatore, even before he had turned into an even bigger jerk. But now that she had seen him vulnerable, she wasn't so sure what she was feeling for him. She was trying to convince herself that she just thought of him as a friend, but she honestly didn't know what they were right now. For all she knew, Damon still considered them to be 'More like acquaintances, really'.

* * *

At lunch, when Elena walked into the cafeteria with Matt and Bonnie, she was furious when she spotted Tyler already sitting at the table, clearly trying to bother Jeremy as he smirked and jabbered something at him. Elena was only slightly relieved by the fact that Jeremy was ignoring him, continuing to eat his lunch and look straight ahead instead of at the attention seeking idiot to his right.

"Why don't you just leave him the hell alone?" Elena challenged once they reached the table.

"What, do you need your sister to fight your battles for you?" Tyler taunted Jeremy.

"From what I've heard it was him fighting my battle yesterday," Elena retorted. "So why don't you leave him alone and say whatever it is that you have to say to me? Or better yet, you could go bother someone your own age and iq level. That is if you can find someone with that low of one." Everyone at the table just sat there, staring at Elena in surprise.

Tyler turned his attention away from Jeremy and towards Elena as he challenged, "And if I don't stop bothering him, then what are you going to do, little girl? You can't do anything to me." He paused for a short amount of time, then in a suggestive voice added, "But if you really want me to leave him alone, then I think that we could work out a deal."

Elena was seeing red and was milliseconds from slapping Tyler across the face as hard as she could, when Damon stood up from the table.

Within seconds of standing up, Damon was standing right in front of Tyler, intimidatingly close.

"Maybe  _she_  can't do anything to you," Damon said threateningly. "But I sure can. And I don't have a single reason not to. So if I were you, I would shut up right about now." Elena couldn't believe that this aggressive voice was coming from the same boy who she had seen crying less than a week before. Damon's face was now just mere inches away from Tyler's as he hissed, "Or actually, why don't you keep talking? Then I'll have a solid excuse to kick your ass."

Damon knew that he probably wouldn't actually do anything to Tyler so that he wouldn't get a phone call home to his father, but Tyler didn't know that. For all Tyler knew, Damon didn't give a crap about getting into trouble.

Although Tyler was intimidated by the sheer aggression in Damon's voice and stance, he wasn't going to let it show in the middle of the cafeteria for everyone to see. Besides, compared to Tyler, Damon was practically a bean pole.

"Do you really think that you would win in a fight with me?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah," Damon responded. "Actually, I do."

Damon placed his hand on the centre of Tyler's chest and pushed him back with a surprising amount of force. Tyler hadn't been expecting that kind of strength out of him.

"So are we going to have a problem, or are you going to shut your stupid mouth and leave Jeremy and Elena alone?" Damon asked with an arrogant smirk.

Tyler rolled his eyes at Damon, but ended up walking away and spending the rest of his lunch somewhere outside of the cafeteria.

Damon casually sat back down and continued to eat, pretending not to notice the confused and shocked looks that he was receiving from absolutely everyone at the table. A few long seconds later, Stefan was the first one to speak.

"What was that?" Stefan asked, seeming amused.

"What?" Damon asked, seeming almost genuinely confused. "The guy's a jackass."

Stefan didn't understand why Damon, who had lately become a jackass himself, thought that counted as an explanation.

"It never bothered you that much before," Stefan pointed out with a smirk instead of demanding an explanation that he knew he wouldn't get.

Maybe it hadn't, but that's because the closest thing to a friend that Tyler had bothered before was Jeremy Gilbert. It was a whole different story when he was bothering Elena, who had been looking out for him lately more than he could have ever expected her to. Maybe if Tyler had bothered her last year, Damon would have still been indifferent to it. But the fact that it was happening then, while Damon owed Elena so much for helping him through things more than she would ever know and keeping his secret from everyone including her aunt and twin brother, there was no way that Damon was going to let Tyler get away with something like that thinking that he could do whatever the hell he wanted to with no consequences whatsoever. Damon wasn't sure if he and Elena Gilbert were really friends, but it sure felt like it to him. She was probably more of a friend to him that past week than anyone else, with the possible exception of Stefan, had ever been.

Bonnie leaned over in her seat next to Elena and whispered in her ear, "Are you still sticking with the story that there's nothing going on between you two? Because I'm going to call BS. on that one."

Elena rolled her eyes and laughed a little. Bonnie had been calling BS on that for a while.

Bonnie noticed that Damon's eyes instantly flickered towards them involuntarily as Elena began to laugh.

Elena turned and whispered back, "We're just friends. If we're even that. I don't really know."

Bonnie snorted a little at that, then turned back and whispered, "Bullshit. I am not blind, okay? It doesn't take a mind reader to tell that you two clearly like each other. So give up the act and at least admit the fact that you like him. I'm your best friend, I think that you can tell me."

Elena bit her lip for a second as she tried to decide what to say. She honestly wasn't sure if she liked Damon that way or not, she was too confused about it all. And for all she knew, Bonnie was just picking up on a bond between them from sharing a secret and didn't really know what she was talking about when she said that they liked each other.

As she considered, her eyes involuntarily flickered to Damon in the hopes that looking at him would magically make her know more than she had two seconds before. That was when she noticed that Damon was staring at her as well and he did not drop his gaze when caught. Instead he stared into her chocolate coloured eyes with his intensely blue ones, causing Elena to feel a strange flip flopping in her stomach.

Bonnie was getting impatient as she waited for an answer, and was going to say something about it to Elena, when she noticed the eye sex that was being had at the table. Apparently Caroline had noticed it too, because now she was giving Bonnie a knowing, we so called this, smirk.

"Either you two stop having eye sex or else I'm going to be sick," Rebekah complained.

Elena and Damon both instantly dropped their gazes embarrassedly. Less so at the other people at the table hearing, than the other out of the pair hearing it. Neither knew how the other one really felt.

"Who was having eye sex?" Matt asked, looking up from his lunch.

"Stefan and Jeremy, of course," Klaus said with a smirk.

Stefan and Jeremy shot him identical death glares, which only caused Klaus to start loudly laughing.

"That staring answered it all," Bonnie whispered to Elena.

"Alright, fine," Elena hissed back. "Maybe I like him."

"There's no maybe about it," Bonnie responded. "Just like there's no maybe about the fact that he clearly likes you back." Elena wasn't sure about that. "Why else would he have defended you against Tyler?"

Elena did know that. There was a perfectly reasonable solution for that which had nothing to do with Damon possibly liking her. He was looking out for her because she had done the same for him. Elena couldn't just tell that to Bonnie though, so instead she remained silent and allowed Bonnie to think that she was right. At least for the time being.


	7. Chapter 7

At the end of the school day, when the bell was just about to ring, Alaric asked Damon to stay after class again.

Crap, Damon thought to himself. He figured that nothing good was going to come out of this. Although that had been what he had thought the last time that Alaric had made him stay behind.

"What'd I do now?" Damon asked as he walked over to his teacher's desk.

Alaric laughed a little as he said, "Nothing bad. I just have your assignment marked. It was really good, if you did work like this all the time I can pretty much guarantee that you'd have an A."

"What?" Damon asked in shock. When Alaric had said that it was really good, he had been expecting a solid C on this one assignment.

"I told you that you're a smart kid, Damon," Alaric pointed out. "You got a hundred on the assignment." Damon raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief. "Which means that you are officially passing this course. Now just try to actually put some effort into the rest of your work and your grade shouldn't slip again."

"Are we talking a hundred percent here, or a hundred out of a much larger number?" Damon asked.

"Percent," Alaric told him with a smirk.

"Well that's got to be the first one of those since elementary school," Damon pointed out. "I was pretty kick-ass at colouring homework. I had the perfect system, colour until I got bored and then make Stefan do the rest."

"I'm guessing that strategy doesn't work very well on other types of homework," Alaric commented.

"No, he just glares at me when I ask," Damon told his teacher. "Like I just told him that I'd killed his puppy. Besides, even if he did agree to do my homework I wouldn't trust that he wasn't doing it completely wrong on purpose just to screw with me."

* * *

"What took you so long?" Stefan asked when Damon finally arrived at his car. Almost the entire parking lot was deserted by then.

"I was talking to Alaric," Damon responded surprising Stefan, who had been expecting his brother to simply ignore the question. "Just be glad that I'm driving you at all."

"What did you do?" Stefan asked, like Damon he also instantly assumed that Damon was asked to stay after class because of something that he had done wrong.

"I got a hundred percent on an assignment," Damon said proudly, knowing that he sounded like a total dork-loser for being so proud, but he didn't really care if Stefan thought that he was dorky or not.

"No, what did you actually do?" Stefan asked.

That hurt a little.

"I actually got a hundred percent on an assignment," Damon said offendedly. Somehow despite the fact that he'd had the same reaction as his brother, it was still incredibly offensive that his brother thought that it was more likely that he was lying about his mark and had gotten into trouble for something, than that he had been telling the truth and gotten a good mark on something.

"Seriously?" Stefan asked, still unable to believe it.

Damon pulled the folded up assignment out of the pocket of his leather jacket and tossed it at his brother as he started up the car.

Stefan unfolded the paper to discover that Damon hadn't been lying, he had actually somehow gotten a perfect mark on an assignment that was so thick Stefan was surprised that his brother had even bothered to finish it.

"Oh," Stefan said.

The moment was over now, Damon was no longer proudly showing off his dorkiness to his brother and answering his questions. Now he had returned to ignoring his brother and acting like he hated him for no reason that Stefan could possibly think of or understand.

* * *

If Damon thought that Stefan had crushed his pride and happiness over his mark on the extra credit, then his father completely pulverized it once he got home.

Stefan the nerd boy instantly headed to his room to work on his homework, while Damon stayed downstairs in the kitchen to look for something to eat.

He realized that it had been a mistake the instant that his father stumbled into the kitchen as Damon searched the fridge.

"Where's your brother?" Guiseppe asked as he pushed past his son to grab a beer out of the fridge.

"In his room working on his homework," Damon responded, refusing to look at his father.

"Shouldn't you be doing your homework, too?" Guiseppe asked threateningly.

"I don't have homework," Damon responded, biting his tongue to keep himself from adding 'And even if I did, I wouldn't be doing it right at three thirty. Only a special kind of loser like Stefan does their homework the instant that they get home'.

"Why should I believe that out of someone who barely passes their classes and is failing at least one of them right now?" Guiseppe asked.

"I'm not failing anymore," Damon argued. "I handed in the missing assignment and got a hundred percent on it. My teacher even kept me after class today to tell me that I'm passing now."

"Bullshit," Guiseppe said and struck Damon across the face with the back of his hand. Lately he had been angrier than usual, which meant that he was also a lot drunker, and a lot less careful about where he hit Damon. "You're too stupid to get a hundred percent on anything. You'd think that you'd at least be smart enough to lie with a more realistic mark, but apparently you're mentally fucking handicapped."

Damon rolled his eyes without thinking, then instantly regretted it as he felt his father grab him by the collar of his shirt and throw him harshly backwards straight into the wall.

"Don't you  _ever_  roll your eyes at me, boy," Damon's father said before kneeing him in the groin. "And don't you dare lie to me again." Guiseppe's knee dug deeper, then suddenly pulled away.

Damon collapsed to the floor in pain as his father slowly walked away.

Just as he was crossing through the doorway out of the kitchen, without turning around Guiseppe threatened, "If I were you, I would get to that homework now."

* * *

Damon's appetite was gone, so after a few minutes of recovery time, he just went upstairs and locked himself in his room. He laid down on his bed and covered his head with his pillow feeling like screaming at the top of his lungs, but instead ending up crying.

Wasn't your family supposed to be proud of you when you get a hundred percent on something? Weren't they supposed to congratulate you on it, or at the very at least believe you when you tell them? But not Damon's family, they act like Damon is some kind of brain dead monster, like he was Frankenstein, just because he had decided to tell them in the hopes that something positive would come out of it.

* * *

Damon didn't know when he had fallen asleep, he supposed that it must have been at some point during the crying, but suddenly he was waking up from his nap to the sound of someone loudly banging on his bedroom door.

"What?" Damon barked.

"I ordered a pizza, I was going to ask if you were going to come have some, but if you're going to be a total dick about it.." Stefan's voice came from the other side of the door.

Yeah, that was exactly what Damon wanted at that point, to go downstairs and try to sit through a meal with his stupid family.

"Go away," Damon told him.

"Aren't you going to at least come eat something?" Stefan asked.

"I. Said. Go. Away!" Damon shouted angrily at his younger brother.

"Fine," Stefan said and Damon could hear the hurt in his voice.

Damon felt even worse than he had before as he listened to Stefan's footsteps fade away. He knew that he couldn't stay in that house any longer, even if he was locked in his room where neither of his family members could reach him. He also couldn't stand to walk past them and listen to their criticism, so instead he headed over to his window and pried it open. He would have taken his car keys with him, but he knew that if he took the car, that his father and Stefan would for sure know that he had left. And he didn't want that, he wanted to be able to pretend that he had been in his room working away at his imaginary homework all night. So Damon took just his cell phone with him as he crawled out of his window and onto the high tree branch just below it. He hastily closed his window and climbed down the tree, then quickly headed down the street with the hope that Stefan and his father weren't looking out the window.

* * *

Damon was surprised once again by how well he knew the path to Elena's house and by the fact that he was actually going to there instead of going off to do something stupid and distract himself from his problems.

That time Damon actually had to knock, it was Jenna who ended up answering the door. The instant that she spotted Damon, Jenna instantly turned around and called for Elena.

A few seconds later, Elena came rushing down the stairs, seeming a little surprised to find Damon standing there.

Jenna's eyes flitted between them quickly a couple of times, then she walked away to go back to making dinner.

Elena looked as if she was surprised to see that the person at the door was Damon, despite the fact that just that very morning she had told Damon that he could talk to her whenever he wanted or needed to.

"Hey," She said as she moved aside so that she was no longer blocking the doorway.

"Hey," Damon said back, trying to seem casual, although Elena could see the pain in his eyes and knew that he had come there because something was wrong.

Damon took a few steps into the house, then Elena closed the door behind him and said, "Just a warning, Caroline's already upstairs."

"Well she's a lot better than my dad and Stefan right now," Damon pointed out with the slightest of smirks and a flaring of his eyes.

Elena wondered what had happened that had made him clearly annoyed with and angry at Stefan, but she didn't ask as they headed up the stairs because she knew that Damon wouldn't want Caroline or Jeremy to overhear.

Caroline, who had heard footsteps on the stairs, began to call out, "Oh my god, Elena, I seriously think that I'm going to throw up all over your floor... Ewwww!"

Damon gave Elena and amused look before they turned into her room. This time Damon didn't hesitate in the threshold, but instead walked right in and sprawled across Elena's bed.

As soon as Caroline had spotted Damon entering the room next to Elena, the frazzled look left her face and was quickly replaced with a catlike smirk directed straight at Elena.

"What happened?" Elena asked, choosing to ignore the look on Caroline's face. She wondered what could have possibly happened in the last five minutes or less that could have made her friend so upset.

"Klaus started texting me and he's trying to ask me to the dance," Caroline said, her smirk gone as she shoved her phone into Elena's hand.

Elena looked down at the screen to read the messages.

* * *

**From Klaus:**

_Hey, gorgeous._

_Do you have a date to the dance yet? ;)_

* * *

"I can't believe that he actually sent you a winky face," Elena said as she handed the cell phone back to Caroline.

"Yeah," Caroline said dramatically. "What am I even supposed to say to that? I just want to ignore the texts completely and pretend that I never got them, but then he'll just ambush me at school tomorrow."

Damon, who was very amused by the whole conversation and his inside look at the useless drama that girls go through, began to snicker a little. This was serving as a quite good distraction from his own, much more serious problems.

"You shut your face," Caroline ordered feistily as she chucked her cell phone across the room at Damon.

Damon simply raised his hand and grabbed her phone effortlessly before it could even hit him, then asked, "Is this seriously how girls act when they get asked out? They start whining and making fun of the guy's text smileys?" He raised an eyebrow at the blonde.

"It is when they get asked out by jerks as disgusting and self-centered as Klaus," Caroline responded defensively. "The guy thinks that he can buy off everyone to do whatever he wants. I would rather go to the dance with either of your brothers than go with him."

"Thanks," Jeremy's voice came, laced with sarcasm, from the hallway. "That's really heartwarming, especially with that tone of complete disgust as you said it."

Caroline's face pinkened a little as she said, "I thought that he was downstairs playing video games or something."

"I was," Jeremy said, appearing in the doorway to Elena's room, then leaning against the frame casually. "But then Jenna sent me to get you guys to eat."

"Smooth," Damon said with a smirk in Caroline's direction.

"We'll figure out what to say later, just ignore it for now," Elena told Caroline as she began to head towards the door.

"Too late," Damon said, closing Caroline's cell phone. "I already solved it."

"You did not seriously respond to that," Caroline said angrily. "I swear to god if you said something stupid-"

Damon tossed her the phone back and Caroline caught it in midair, then instantly checked what he had sent.

* * *

**From Caroline:**

_No, I was thinking that I'd go by myself and just hang out with Elena and Bonnie._

* * *

Caroline looked back up and ruefully admitted, "Oh, that was actually a pretty good answer."

"I know," Damon said arrogantly, as he got up from Elena's bed. "I was going to say that you were going with Jeremy instead, but it kind of looks like you got rejected by him, so..."

Caroline rolled her eyes at that as the four teens headed towards the stairs.

* * *

As they entered the kitchen, Jenna pointed to Damon as she warned, "If you don't like tacos, then you do not get to eat."

"Then I guess that it's a good thing that I like tacos," Damon responded.

"I'm not so sure about that considering Jenna's cooking," Elena said with a grin as she sat down.

"You be quiet," Jenna said warningly. "I didn't even burn them this time, okay?"

"So they're raw?" Jeremy asked.

"And this is why Caroline gets hers first," Jenna said, glaring at her niece and nephew. "And you two get yours twenty minutes after the rest of us finish just so that I have time to burn them."

Actually, they did end up getting their tacos last after Caroline, Damon, and Jenna; but they got them immediately after instead of waiting forever.

"Keep in mind that I can say whatever I want to a certain guy that I know," Elena said smirking at her aunt.

"Keep in mind that you're the spawn of satan," Jenna retorted.

"Actually, I'm the spawn of your sister," Elena pointed out.

"Who turned out to be a horrible little monster of a child," Jenna added with a grin. "I mean you're practically the definition of terrible child with your nerdy grades, and your goody two shoes attitude. I would have hated you when I was in high school."

"Thanks," Elena said sarcastically.

* * *

After dinner was over, Jeremy went to go back to playing his video game, only to have an interested Damon follow behind him.

* * *

"You are such a liar," Jeremy argued halfway through a match.

"About what?" Damon asked, his eyes glued to the screen.

"About never playing this game before," Jeremy responded.

"I wasn't lying," Damon argued. "I haven't played video games since I was like eight. I guess I'm just a quick learner."

"Maybe it's beginner's luck," Jeremy said in an attempt to convince himself, although it was clear that the reason Damon was winning was not because of beginner's luck, but some ridiculous reflexes that Jeremy had no chance of competing with.

"Yeah, maybe," Damon agreed.

* * *

"Quick question," Caroline said to Elena as they cleaned up the dishes. "Why is Damon here?"

"Because he got into a fight with Stefan and didn't feel like staying there," Elena responded, she made sure not to tell her friend the whole reason that Damon was there, but to give her that tiny innocent fact so that Caroline would hopefully let it go.

"A fight about what?" Caroline asked.

"I have no idea," Elena answered truthfully.

"So are you going to go to the dance with him?" Caroline asked with a suggestive look.

"Yeah, because Damon really seems like the school dance kind of guy. Especially the kind of school dance where you have to dress up," Elena said sarcastically, then realized that she hadn't said anything to deny that there was something going on between them.

By the time that Elena had noticed, it was too late. Caroline was already raising a brow at her and asking, "But if he was the dance type you would be going with him?"

"I didn't say that," Elena hissed in a whisper, suddenly very aware of how close the couch in the living room was to the kitchen.

"Yeah, but you didn't say anything denying it either," Caroline hissed back. "Which says it all."

Elena rolled her eyes, "Even if he was the school dance type, I doubt that I would be the one that he would end up taking." Another bad wording choice that Caroline immediately picked up on.

"But you would want him to, wouldn't you," Caroline asked in a hushed tone. "And if he was going to go to the dance, you would be the first girl that he would ask. It's pretty obvious when he magically comes back to the table as soon as you ask him to-"

"Not as soon as I asked him to," Elena interrupted. "It took like a week."

"After everyone else had tried for over a month," Caroline pointed out. "And then there was him practically getting into a fight with Tyler in the middle of the caf to protect you. I mean he really snapped when Tyler tried to offer you his perved out deal. And now he just randomly shows up at your house of all places because he got into some stupid fight with his brother. Add that up with Mr. Too Cool For Everyone suddenly acting like he's been best friends with you for years and there's no way that you can even try to deny that he likes you."

Caroline was right, Elena couldn't argue with her. But it wasn't because of a lack of reasons, it was because she couldn't tell Caroline any of them.

The only reason that Damon had even come back to the table or started to let her in was because something had happened between him and his dad that had made things even worse than they had been before that made him need someone. If Elena hadn't been bothering him all week, he might have even gone to Stefan or Caroline instead. She'd just happened to start pestering him at a convenient time.

And as for him defending her, it was because they were friends, or as close as Damon Salvatore had these days. And because Damon probably felt like he had to look out for her after all that she had seen and all that she knew.

Damon's reasoning for showing up at her house wasn't random and wasn't just because of some 'little fight with his brother'. Obviously something had happened with his asshat of a dad as well.

And Damon was not acting like they had been best friends for years, he was just acting more like his normal self and Caroline wasn't used to it anymore. She had gotten used to dickhead ignore everyone Damon and assumed that just because he was acting like less of a jerk than before that he must like Elena, which was just completely ridiculous.

"You know that I'm right," Caroline said with a smile. "That's why you're staying so silent."

"You aren't," Elena responded. "I've just given up on trying to convince you and Bonnie because no matter what I say you'll turn it around on me."

"I don't have to with the answers that you've been giving me," Caroline pointed out.

"What are we talking about?" Jenna asked as she reentered the kitchen.

"Nothing," Elena responded quickly.

"Boys," Caroline said with a grin at the exact same time.

"What kind of boys?" Jenna asked as she sat on top of the counter and peered into to the living room. "Boys who randomly showed up today and randomly were in Jeremy's bed at two in the morning on Saturday?"

Oh crap, that was not going to be a fun one for Elena to try to explain to Caroline. With Jenna she could easily get away with just saying that Damon was one of her friends from school and that it had gotten late, especially since Jenna had been very distracted at the time. And Jeremy had seemed a little weirded out, but hadn't asked about it more than the initial 'why is Damon in my bed'. But Caroline was pretty much guaranteed to bring this up all the time and to not accept any answer that Elena could think of. And as if trying to think up something that would make Caroline drop it, Jenna was sitting there so that she couldn't say anything to contradict what she had already said.

Elena was sure that Caroline would have to tell Bonnie everything that she had discovered that night as well as the fact that Damon had randomly shown up, the next morning or over the phone as soon as she left.

"The boy who did what now?" Caroline asked. "Because I'm pretty sure that Jeremy showing up at his own house or sleeping in his own bed isn't exactly newsworthy, which means that Jenna was referring to Damon and you have a hell of a lot of explaining to do, Elena."

"I was indeed referring to Damon," Jenna said with a cruel grin.

"And was Jeremy in the bed at the time?" Caroline asked confusedly.

"No," Jenna said with a slight laugh. "He was sleeping over at Matt's."

"And Damon was sleeping in his bed?" Caroline checked.

"Exactly," Jenna responded.

"Why?" Caroline asked.

"Because he was already over here and it got late so he just slept over since he'd walked and Jeremy had our car," Elena explained, praying that the excuse would work, but not holding out very much hope that it actually had even the slightest chance of stopping Caroline Forbes' interrogation.

"And why was Damon already here? What were you two doing that made you stay up so late that he had to stay over all night?" Caroline asked a little too loudly with a smug look and raised eyebrow.

Elena hesitated, unsure what to say. The impatient and curious faces of her aunt and friend weren't helping.

Her mind had blanked out so much, that Elena was actually relieved when Damon walked into the kitchen after overhearing the last part and smoothly responded, "Well obviously Elena was throwing a rave slash orgy while she was home alone. But she's pretty sick, she only invited guys, so I guess that's why you weren't invited. But if you want in next time, then I think that I could pull a few strings." He winked at her, then leaned casually against the cupboard with a tilted smirk.

"You're real proud that you were in a twelve guys and one girl orgy, aren't you?" Caroline asked. "But I bet that you wish that there was still a couple more guys and that there hadn't even been a girl there to begin with."

"Actually it was eleven guys, your loverboy cancelled at the last minute because he needed the time to figure out whether to put a smiley face or a winky face in his text when he asked you out. Clearly he made the wrong decision," Damon responded. "And you're just jealous because you'd never have as many guys fighting over you as I did. It's like they all forgot that Elena was even there as soon as I showed up."

"Real rave orgies don't end until at least three in the morning, and they require a lot of glow sticks," Jenna spoke up. "I think that I would have known if Elena'd thrown a rave orgy when I came home."

" _That_ 's your problem with his story?" Elena asked, hoping that her aunt didn't know that out of experience, even though she already knew that Jenna had been a party animal when she was a teen and in her early twenties.

"Her problem's that she was off being sacrificed to a serial killer instead of there," Damon pointed out.

"So what were you actually doing here?" Caroline asked him.

"I was bored and Stefan was at Matt's house so I came here," Damon lied smoothly in a tone that made Caroline seem crazy for not thinking of that right off the bat. "She'd just come back so she was still naive and didn't quite hate me as much as the rest of you."

Elena was impressed when Caroline seemed to just accept this answer. Damon had a special skill where he would make some ridiculous, over the top, joke of an answer first so that a lie that may have seemed ridiculous itself beforehand would seem perfectly sensible afterwards. Damon had even made Caroline forget her question about what they were doing after his distraction.

"Oh," Caroline responded. "Well that's boring."

"After you were given the idea of a rave orgy, yeah," Damon said. "If I had said that I was stupid and needed a grade eleven's help on my history and that we just did homework the whole time, then you wouldn't think what really happened was that boring."

Elena knew for a fact that Caroline wouldn't find what had really happened boring if she had found out that Damon had shown up crying.

* * *

Within seconds of Damon returning to the living room, Jenna was smirking once again and teasing, "You like him."

"Just because I'm friends with him?" Elena whispered, really wishing that they would drop the topic when Damon was right there and had already overheard them once.

"Sure, just friends," Caroline whispered back sarcastically.

"There isn't anything going on," Elena hissed.

"Look at him, the guy's ridiculously hot," Jenna pointed out. "Or are you going to try to deny having noticed that?"

Elena was just wanted them to be quiet as she exasperatedly responded, "Okay, yes, Damon's ridiculously attractive. But it's not my fault for having eyes!"

"A little loud there Elena," Jeremy commented from where he was on the couch. Next to him, Damon was silently smirking.

Elena wanted a giant hole to form in the kitchen and swallow her alive as Caroline and Jenna snickered at her.

"You think that he's hot too, does that mean that you like him, Jenna?" Elena whispered as she walked further from the living room.

"If I was your age I probably would," Jenna commented, still laughing a little.

"Stop laughing, if you two hadn't been bothering me so much, that never would have happened," Elena said with a glare. She hoped that Damon would just forget about that, but she knew that it wasn't likely.

* * *

Damon ended up leaving Elena's house at the same time as Caroline did, around nine thirty. He hadn't brought up what he had heard yet when he left. Caroline offered to drive him home, but Damon said that he'd rather walk anyways. He figured that he would both be able to stall going home for longer and have a lot less explaining about why he would be climbing up a tree to get back into his house.


	8. Chapter 8

Damon decided to take a long route home, and had just reached a park about five minutes away from Elena's house, when his phone began to buzz in his pocket. He stopped at one of the park benches and pulled his phone out to read the message.

* * *

**From Elena:**

_Sorry, hanging out with Caroline probably wasn't what you wanted when you came over._

**From Damon:**

_It made a pretty decent distraction at least. And it was a lot better than being at home._

**From Elena:**

_Yeah, but I'm guessing that you came over to talk or something, not just distract yourself._

**From Damon:**

_A combination of both._

**From Elena:**

_Well I can listen to you now with no interruptions. What happened between you and Stefan today?_

**From Damon:**

_It's kind of a long story, so it's probably going to take a lot of texts._

**From Elena:**

_That's okay I can keep up._

**From Damon:**

_Okay. The reason that my dad was in an especially bad mood on Saturday was because he got a phone call home that I was failing History._

_And then the next day by some miracle, Alaric got me to stay after class and offered me an extra credit assignment if I wanted it._

_Which obviously I did so that I could be passing, and hopefully make my dad calm down a little, even though he'd probably just find some other excuse to get pissed off at me anyways._

_And I worked hard on the assignment, harder than I've probably worked on any schoolwork before. Then today Alaric kept me after class again._

_I thought that it would be something bad, but apparently I somehow got a hundred percent on it and now I'm passing._

**From Elena:**

_Good job :)_

* * *

Damon chuckled humourlessly to himself. Elena had instantly given him the one response that he had desperately wanted, but couldn't get from his own family. And she didn't even have to answer, she could have just continued waiting for him to finish the story without so much as an acknowledgment of the mark.

* * *

**From Damon:**

_Thanks, at least someone thinks so. When I got to the car and Stefan asked me why I had taken so long, I was in a good mood so I decided to actually answer instead of ignoring his question like I usually do now._

_So I said that I was talking to Alaric and he instantly asked what I'd done wrong, which was annoying enough, but okay, probably justified. So I wasn't pissed off yet and told him that he kept me to tell me about my perfect mark on an assignment._

_Which immediately came back to bite me back in the ass when he asked, "No, what did you really do?"_

_It was bad enough when he asked what I'd done the first time, but after I told him the reason dead seriously and he refused to believe me and had to ask again, I was starting to get ticked off._

_And yet I still told him again, and he still didn't believe me until I actually handed the assignment to him and he checked the mark and name on it._

_He probably thinks that I cheated on it with all the support that I'm getting there. And all he said when he saw the mark was, "Oh". And when we got home things just got worse._

_Stefan went to go work on homework and I went to go look for something to eat, but my jackass of a dad had to come ask why I wasn't like perfect little Stefan working on homework._

_And when I said that I didn't have any he started getting mad and well.. violent.. and started freaking out about how I must be lying about not having homework._   
_Then he was saying something about how if I actually did my homework that maybe I wouldn't be failing at least one of my classes._

_And then I proved just how stupid I am by saying that I got a hundred percent on an assignment and was passing history now. And let's just say that he didn't believe me either._

_There was a lot of swearing, and telling me how I'm too stupid to get a hundred percent on something and too stupid to even come up with a good lie, and more hitting._

_And then he just left the kitchen telling me to go do my homework now or else so I went and locked myself in my room, pretending to work on my nonexistent homework._

_And eventually I ended up falling asleep only to be woken up by Stefan pounding on my door. So I yelled 'what' and he got into a total bitchfit and then expected me to go downstairs to eat with them._

_So I just gave up and left.. Well left my door locked and climbed out a window so that hopefully they don't notice that I even left and I won't get bitched at as much._

**From Elena:**

_I don't think that Stefan was trying to annoy you and start a fight, it probably just seemed a lot worse with everything else going on._

**From Damon:**

_Yeah, I know. But it still drove me insane and so I just made everything worse. But I'm still so sick of it always being Stefan's the perfect child and Damon's the screw-up that should never have been born._

**From Elena:**

_You are not a screw-up and he isn't perfect._

**From Damon:**

_Try telling that to my dad._

* * *

Somehow it was easier for Damon to talk to Elena about all of this stuff through text, when he didn't have to look into her eyes as he said the things that he wasn't able to talk to anyone else about.

* * *

**From Elena:**

_Okay, I'd like to give him a piece of my mind as long as I can do it over the phone or computer or bring a big, scary looking bodyguard._

**From Damon:**

_I didn't mean literally._

**From Elena:**

_I don't really know where to get a big, scary bodyguard anyways. And it just doesn't seem effective when it's just someone who's too scared to even confront him in real life._

**From Damon:**

_Because you would be so much scarier in person than in an email where for all he knows you are a big, scary looking bodyguard?_

**From Elena:**

_When I get angry I go all Hulk, I even literally turn green._

**From Damon:**

_And does your shirt rip off too?_

**From Elena:**

_Not the point._

**From Damon:**

_So it does?_

**From Elena:**

_If I'm starting to get angry I put a super baggy shirt on top of my normal one so that my normal one rips off, but my Hulk chest is still covered._

**From Damon:**

_So then when you calm down you just have the way too big shirt on that, lets face it, is probably going to fall off or at least have a ridiculously low neckline._

**From Elena:**

_No, throughout my entire Hulk experience I remain fully clothed and covered. You do realize that wasn't really my point, right?_

**From Damon:**

_Yeah, it was that when you get angry you're a scary, scary little girl. I don't exactly believe that considering Tyler's reaction to 'scary Elena' today._

**From Elena:**

_Shut up._

**From Damon:**

_Fine, I'll change the subject. So apparently I'm not just good looking, but 'ridiculously attractive'. Lets talk about that._

**From Elena:**

_Jenna said it first and you were so not supposed to hear that._

**From Damon:**

_I'm not supposed to know that you go around talking about how hot I am all the time?_

**From Elena:**

_ONE time. And they were picking on me so I can't be held responsible for what I was pressured into saying. I could have just as easily been pressured into saying that Stefan was attractive._

**From Damon:**

_So I'm ridiculously attractive and he's just normal attractive? Are you sure that you couldn't be pressured into calling me attractive just a little bit easier?_

**From Elena:**

_Stop laughing at me!_

**From Damon:**

_How do you know that I'm laughing?_

**From Elena:**

_Because you're Damon. And when you stay stuff like that you're always smirking at other people's embarrassment and laughing to yourself about it._

**From Damon:**

_Wow, I'm kind of a dick._

**From Elena:**

_Sometimes, yeah._

**From Damon:**

_Brutal honesty, I like it. It means that when you say good things you mean them._

* * *

Damon ended up sitting in that park for a long time after Elena had ended the conversation by saying that she had to go to bed. He still didn't want to go back home, as stupid as it may have seemed when Stefan was probably in bed and his dad was probably passed out in his chair with the tv on. Yet, he was still afraid that one of them had noticed that he was gone and would be waiting for him to get home.

He ended up sitting there, trapped in his thoughts, for basically the whole night. He only got up from the bench and began to head the rest of the way home at the break of dawn.

* * *

By the time that he reached his house, it was a little after Stefan usually got up and began his attempts to wake Damon up. At least their dad was probably unconscious still so Damon would only have to face the lesser of two problems.

He quickly crawled up the tree and attempted to open his window, only to find that it was stuck. That was impossible, he had left his door locked from the inside and the window unlocked so that he could get back in. Damon tried once more, pulling with so much strength that he practically fell out of the tree in the process. But still, the window didn't budge a bit. It definitely was locked.

Damon crawled back down the tree and headed towards the front door begrudgingly.

"You do realize that you aren't the only one who can climb a tree, right?" Stefan asked as Damon walked into the house. "Where the hell were you all night?"

"So you actually went outside and climbed up a tree and crawled through a window just to try and bother me?" Damon asked.

"No, I decided to check if you were even in there or alive and you refused to answer," Stefan defended himself, wondering when this had become about him. "You didn't answer the question, where the hell were you all night?"

"What if I was naked?" Damon asked. "And you just decided to crawl in through the window for no reason."

"Considering I said that I was going to climb the tree, that'd be your own fault for being to stupid to put clothes on," Stefan responded.

"If I was there, then I would have just locked the window, closed the curtains, and ignored you so that you wouldn't have even been able to see me," Damon pointed out.

Before Stefan had a chance to respond, Damon was already at the top of the stairs and heading towards his room. Damon smirked at the fact that he had managed to avoid answering his brother's questions once again. He was developing a real talent for it.

* * *

As Damon got ready, he noticed in the mirror that his black eye was beginning to fade.

* * *

When he walked back down the stairs, Stefan asked him, "So what? You just specifically hate me now? Is that why you're acting normal around everyone else, but you're still a total dick to me?"

Damon was way too sleep deprived for that conversation. In reality, the reason that he was ignoring Stefan was because Stefan was the one that he cared about most. Damon couldn't tell him that though so instead he just responded with, "You are such a drama queen."

"Seriously, what the hell did I do, Damon?" Stefan asked as they headed out their front door.

Nothing, nothing, nothing. The word was fighting so hard to escape Damon's lips. Damon bit his tongue hard to keep the word from escaping and avoided looking into his brother's sad eyes. He knew that looking would just make it that much harder, but he could still feel the eyes on him and imagine how they looked. That was hard enough.

* * *

It seemed like hours later when they finally arrived at the school and Damon practically ran away from the car to keep himself from saying something stupid to his brother. He headed straight over to Elena and managed to distract himself from his guilt a little as she covered up his healing black eye.

* * *

At lunch, Tyler returned to their table, but didn't say a word to Jeremy or so much as look at Elena so no one kicked him out.

* * *

Over the course of the next few days, Damon's black eye completely vanished. Damon continued to sit at the table during lunch and the others were finally beginning to get used to his presence once again. Damon still dodged almost all of Stefan's questions though, and was clearly closest with Elena for reasons that only the pair understood.

As each day went by, Stefan's patience with Damon diminished a little more. He knew that it was incredibly juvenile, but he was starting to get jealous of Elena and the attention that she was getting from Damon.

Stefan wanted to be the person who brought Damon back to the table. Stefan wanted to be the cause of those far too few moments when Damon would seem almost like his old self again. Stefan wanted to be the one who Damon was closest too, but he hadn't been for a while. Stefan just wanted his brother back.

What scared Stefan the most was the way that Damon seemed to be returning to normal with everyone except for him. He was scared that Damon hated him for something that he had done, but didn't realize. How was he supposed to figure out what it was if Damon wouldn't tell him? And what if Damon never forgave him for whatever it was? What if Damon started acting all nice and normal to everyone except for him? What if things keep getting worse between them?

* * *

On the Friday of the next week, the day of the dance, Jenna was in full panic mode.

"Elena, why did you do this to me?" Jenna asked frantically as she got ready.

"You agreed to it," Elena argued. "And because once you get over this whole nerve thing, you're going to have a good time and he's going to be amazed by how you look."

"Again," Jenna commented. "Hopefully this time in a good way."

Jeremy snickered a little as he watched the girls frantically attempt to put the finishing touches on their hair and makeup. "You'd have to actually finish getting ready first so that we can leave first," He commented.

"We're almost ready," Elena said, glaring at her twin brother through the mirror.

"Why are you trying so hard?" Jeremy asked. "It's not like Damon's even going to be at the dance. He's too cool for that kind of thing."

Elena turned around to glare at her brother even harder.

"I'm not dressing up for him. I'm dressing up because the whole theme is formal wear," Elena responded angrily. "So shut your face."

"Ooh, sore spot?" Jeremy asked, laughing a little as he dodged the hairbrush that Elena had thrown at him.

"Ready," Jenna said as she put her makeup brush down. "How do I look?"

"Perfect," Elena responded.

* * *

"Why are you even coming if you aren't going to dress up?" Stefan asked as he got into the passenger seat of Damon's car. "Does it maybe have something to do with Elena?"

Damon rolled his eyes as he began to drive. Elena had been part of his reason for deciding to go to the dance last minute, but a fairly large one had also been the fact that he didn't want to be alone with his dad while Stefan was at the dance. Even if he had decided to go earlier, he still wouldn't have bothered dressing up. He thought it was too lame and would be embarrassed to show up looking like that.

Damon had never been to a school dance before, so when he entered the gym to see how transformed it had become over the course of a single day he was pretty damn impressed... As impressed as Damon Salvatore could be with some lame-ass school dance.

* * *

"Looks like Jeremy was wrong," Jenna told Elena as they entered the gym where almost no one was dancing yet. "Because I see a certain too cool to dress up guy looking very out of place."

Elena followed her aunt's gaze and was surprised to find that Damon was in fact there, standing in a small group with Stefan and Caroline. He was wearing his usual black t shirt, leather jacket, and jeans combination instead of formal wear like absolutely everyone else was. As Elena looked at him, Damon suddenly looked up and noticed her and froze.

Damon was completely struck by her appearance, he couldn't believe that she could somehow look that much more beautiful. Suddenly he didn't hate the formal theme quite as much.

Caroline seemed to notice Damon's strange behaviour, since she turned in the direction that he was looking to spot Elena, Jeremy, and Jenna. Caroline had a pretty good idea of which one Damon was gawking at as she smiled and waved at her friend.

"I guess that's my cue to leave you two alone and try not to embarrass us all too much," Jenna said.

"You'll be fine," Elena comforted before she headed over to Caroline with Jeremy following shortly behind her.


	9. Chapter 9

"Just so you know, I hate you a little bit right now," Caroline said as soon as Elena was within earshot.

"Why?" Elena asked with a slight laugh.

"Because it's not even fair that you showed up looking like that," Caroline responded. "How is any other girl even supposed to compete?"

"You're kidding me, right?" Elena asked. "You look amazing... Besides if no other girl has a chance, then maybe Klaus will stop bothering you... But I doubt it considering the way that he's looking at you right now."

Caroline wanted to ask, 'What? You mean the way that Damon was looking at you like five seconds ago?' but she thought better of it since Damon was standing right there. Instead she just asked, "Where do you even see him?"

Elena gestured towards him with her chin and Caroline turned to look. Klaus grinned and waved at her as his bored looking sister stalked away after spotting Matt.

Caroline ignored him and turned back around to face Elena again, groaning loudly as she did so.

"Great," She said sarcastically. "And now he's alone so he's probably going to come over here."  
"Well then I guess it's too bad that you already have someone to dance with," Elena said with a laugh as she grabbed Caroline by the arm and dragged her onto the floor.

* * *

There was a fast paced Pitbull song playing, so the girls began to dance like crazy. They didn't care at all about how stupid they may look, or about the fact that they were two of about ten total people dancing at that point.

"I swear I'm going to break my ankle in these shoes," Elena said, temporarily stopping dancing to remove her shoes and toss them towards a nearby wall. Caroline followed suit as well, and within seconds they were dancing again making complete fools of themselves.

* * *

Klaus, who had already been heading over to where Jeremy, Damon, and Stefan were, went and stood by them, watching the girls with a slight smirk. Damon watched with a practically identical smirk plastered across his own face.

A few seconds later, Bonnie showed up and spotted Caroline and Elena, then went to join them while Matt and Rebekah headed to join the group.

"They look like complete idiots," Rebekah commented judgmentally as she stared at the trio in disgust.

"They look like they're having fun," Matt said. He didn't understand why Rebekah was such a bitch to them.

"Well then why don't you go join them?" Rebekah asked irritatedly.

"It'd be better than standing here with you," Matt muttered a little too loudly.

Rebekah shot daggers at him with her eyes.

* * *

Before long, a few other kids began to dare to form their own small groups.

When the current song ended and was replaced with another fast song, Bust a Move, Bonnie stopped dancing and said with a smirk, "I think that we needed to make some of the buzzkills over there join in."

The others agreed and went to go attempt to abduct some of the guys.

Caroline immediately grabbed Matt as Bonnie grabbed Jeremy, and Elena grabbed Stefan. Before the guys knew what had happened, they were being dragged away from the group and back to where the girls had been dancing before.

"No, no, no, no, no," Stefan complained. "Take Damon instead."

"I don't dance," Damon said smirking after his brother. Elena had expected that response if she tried to take him in the first place. That, combined with what Bonnie and Caroline's comments on her trying to drag Damon specifically would have been, had made her decide to grab Stefan instead.

"Neither do I," Stefan complained.

"You're easier to force into doing something," Elena said with a smirk as she grabbed his hands and forced him to dance.

* * *

"Wow, I almost didn't recognize you," Alaric said with a smirk as he walked over to Jenna who had been watching her niece dance as she leaned back against a wall. He was wearing a tux and pulling it off a lot better than most of the students who were wearing them. "You clean up well... And a lot."

Jenna turned to him, her face reddening as she laughed and said, "That was so uncalled for. Couldn't you have just said that I look nice instead of adding in the insult."

"Sorry," Alaric said with a chuckle. "You look nice, Jenna."

"Thanks. You don't look half bad yourself," Jenna said with a smirk as she continued to watch Elena and Caroline dance while Bonnie joined them.

Alaric looked over there and laughed a little, "They seem like they're having a good time. Not many other people do."

"I love Elena, but the fact that she is literally doing the funky chicken right now means that I might have to disown her," Jenna said as the trio began to do the stupidest dance moves that they could think of.

"I'm just impressed that she can even do it in that dress, let alone dance in general," Alaric commented.

"She made sure that she got one just short enough that she wouldn't trip on it," Jenna told him. "Which makes her already smarter than me. This one isn't that bad until you try to run down the stairs. I almost died."

"I'll keep that in mind that the next time that I need to buy a dress or go on stairs wearing one," Alaric said.

"I'm sure that'll come in handy real soon," Jenna responded, then spotted Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena walking back towards their group with huge smirks that showed they were planning something. "What are they doing?"

As Caroline and Bonnie grabbed guys, Alaric commented, "If Elena thinks that she's going to convince Damon to go then she's crazy. That's about as likely as Caroline asking Klaus to dance."

As Elena dragged Stefan away, Jenna responded in an amused tone, "You seem a little too invested in the teenage drama. You kind of sound like a teenage girl right now."

"It's not my fault," Alaric said defensively. "I'm stuck here all day. I see and hear things, and I really don't have that exciting of a life. Besides it's like a real life interactive soap opera. What kind of guy wouldn't be invested in that?"

Jenna began to laugh loudly, "I'm thinking probably most of them. So tell me more about this soap opera. What's going on with the Caroline thing."

"Well apparently," Alaric said with a grin. "Klaus likes her and it's pretty obvious. He's the kind of rich and spoiled kid who's used to always getting anything that he wants. Problem is that Caroline not only dislikes him, but also his sister because of things that she's said or done to Elena. I heard that Caroline rejected coming to the dance with Klaus, but I doubt that's going to stop him from bothering her all night asking for a dance."

"I heard her screeching in disgust when he asked her out over text," Jenna responded. "So if you're so smart, then is Klaus going to win and convince her to dance with him or just get rejected all night? Caroline's pretty stubborn herself when she wants to be."

"No, Klaus is going to end up getting one dance and once dance only," Alaric said confidently. "Caroline's going to be pissed off the whole time, but she'll just do it so that he'll leave her alone."

"You willing to bet on that?" Jenna asked.

"Sure, if I win then I get to take you to dinner one night," Alaric said.

"And if I win?" Jenna asked.

"Then you get to go to dinner with me one night," Alaric said with a smirk.

"You're on," Jenna told him.

* * *

A while later, the three girls had to take a break from dancing to catch their breath. They headed back over to where Damon, Rebekah, and Klaus were still standing with the other guys following closely behind.

Damon was glad, this meant that he wouldn't have to watch Stefan dancing with Elena anymore. He didn't dance and he knew that he wouldn't have gone even if Elena had tried to grab him, but it still bothered him watching her dance with him.

After they had been standing there for a few minutes, a slow song came on and Caroline grimaced as Klaus moved to stand next to her.

Rebekah moved towards Matt, who quickly asked Bonnie to dance before the tall blonde could reach him. Rebekah pouted, then turned to Stefan and somehow managed to convince him to dance with her.

"So, love," Klaus said as he leaned close to Caroline. "What would you say to a dance?"

"Sure," Caroline said as she took a few steps away from him. "You wanna dance, Jeremy?"

Jeremy moved to go with her and smirked at the look on Klaus's face as he did so. Then there was only Elena, Damon, and Klaus left.

"Elena?" Klaus asked, turning to her.

Elena agreed since she did feel a little sorry for the guy, besides she wanted to dance and it was pretty clear that Damon would not be dancing with anyone.

* * *

"Looks like I'm winning so far," Jenna pointed out.

"Yeah, but this is just the first slow dance," Alaric pointed out.

* * *

When the next slow song came on, Klaus tried to convince Caroline once again, but got rejected as Caroline sat by herself. This time Bonnie ended up dancing with Jeremy, and Matt ended up giving in and dancing with Rebekah once. Stefan was in the washroom, so Caroline stood with Elena on the sidelines for the start of the song.

Damon spotted Tyler, who had spent the earlier portion of the night in the midst of a group of slutty girls, heading towards Elena with an arrogant look on his face.

When he reached the group he smirked at Elena and asked, "Need someone to dance with?"

Elena was shocked when Damon answered for her, "No, she already has someone." He grabbed Elena by the hand and dragged her away from the jerk.

"I thought that you don't dance," Elena commented when they stopped walking and he placed his hands on her waist. She instantly wrapped her arms around his neck as they began to move.

"I don't, but I figured that I'd save you from Captain Douchebag," Damon said.

Elena could have handled it herself, but she felt no need to object to Damon's solution.

* * *

"And then there were two," Klaus said with a grin.

"No," Caroline told him.

"Oh come on, one dance," Klaus said. "And then I'll leave you alone.. Come on, one dance can't be that bad."

"Fine," Caroline said. "But only one."

* * *

"I win," Alaric said as Caroline and Klaus headed out towards the centre of the gym and began to dance.

"Nice formal wear by the way," Elena said with a slight laugh.

"I don't do the whole dressing up thing," Damon said.

"Just like you don't do the whole dancing or sharing feelings thing?" Elena asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, only this rule is even stricter," Damon responded.

"Why?" Elena asked. "You're afraid that you might just get caught being fun?"

"No," Damon responded, suddenly spinning Elena and then dipping her. For a second she thought that he was going to drop her, but he caught her at the last minute and Elena began to giggle hysterically. "I'm loads of fun all the time. I just don't like looking like a dork."

"Are you calling me a dork?" Elena asked as they started to dance normally again.

"No," Damon said. "When girls dress up they look all hot, when guys dress up they look like idiots."

"Are you calling me hot?" Elena asked jokingly.

"Maybe," Damon responded with a tilted smirk.

"You do realize that dressing up doesn't make you look like a loser, being the one who's too afraid of what people will think to get dressed does," Elena told him.

"Are you calling me a loser?" Damon asked.

"Maybe," Elena responded, imitating him. "But you're the fun kind of loser."

"Hard to believe the girl who I saw doing the sprinkler earlier is calling  _me_  a loser," Damon said with a smirk.

"You're just jealous because while you were hiding in the corner with queen bitch and her brother, I was having the time of my life," Elena said with a smirk. "You try to act like you don't care what anyone thinks about you, but really you're one of the people who most does. That's why you constantly pretend that you don't care about anyone or anything, or like you're too cool to ever do anything just flat out stupid and fun and let loose."

"Is that really what you think?" Damon asked as the song ended.

"Yeah," Elena responded. "Why, do you wanna try and prove me wrong by actually acting like a normal person and making yourself look like a complete idiot on the dance floor?"

"So that's what this is?" Damon asked with a grin as they headed back to where the group was beginning to form again around Stefan. "You were trying to convince me to dance with that entire speech?"

"Not all of it," Elena argued. "I meant all of that stuff. It's just that the main point of that was to try and force you to be fun instead of hiding in the corner all night."

"What's in it for me?" Damon asked.

"A lot of fun?" Elena asked with a laugh.

"Maybe I'm already having a lot of fun in my corner," Damon responded.

"Well then you don't know what the definition of a bunch of fun is," Elena argued. "Please?"

"No," Damon told her.

"Why not?" Elena asked, then quickly added. "And if you say because you don't dance I will kill you."

"Fine, I won't say it," Damon responded.

"Why not?" Elena asked. "Why don't you dance? Because you're a boring loser who's too afraid of what everyone else will say?"

"Ouch," Damon said with a laugh then leaned closer to whisper in her ear. "But no, it's because if I start dancing, then everyone else here is just going to feel terrible about their own dance skills. I was trying to be nice." Damon suddenly grabbed Elena by the waist and picked her up in a half fireman's carry, throwing her over one shoulder. Elena screeched a little in shock. "But being nice is overrated."

Elena would have been thrilled with what she had just heard if she wasn't being carried who knows where by Damon. And if she was sure that Damon had meant that being nice by not dancing was overrated, and not that being nice to her was overrated.

"What are you doing?" Elena asked. She would have flailed in an attempt to get down, but she was sure that it would either do no good or end with her falling head first onto the floor.

Damon stopped without answering and set her down in front of him where Caroline and Bonnie were already dancing to the quick paced song. Well, had been dancing and staring at Elena and Damon while they chattered back and forth about it, but they'd had to go back to just dancing when Damon had carried Elena over there.

"You win," Damon said, causing a huge grin to form on Elena's face as he suddenly grabbed her hand and spun her again.

* * *

As Stefan watched Damon dance, he was amazed. He had thought it was strange enough when he had first come back to find Damon doing a slow dance, although the fact that it was with Elena had relieved some of the oddity. But even then, Damon had seemed weird, laughing like Stefan hadn't seen him do for a long time. It had been even more shocking when Damon had suddenly picked her up and carried her over to Caroline and Bonnie and started dancing like he didn't care what anyone other than her thought. And possibly the most surprising thing, was that Damon, the guy who absolutely refused to dance, was one of the very few people there who could actually dance well.

* * *

Jenna had also noticed Damon and Elena dancing together, as well as the giant smile on Elena's face and how much she was laughing. It reminded Jenna of the way that Elena had been before her parents' death when she had just been the fun and crazy girl, very similar to how Jenna had been herself in high school. Sure, Elena had mostly gone back to normal, with a few minor changes, and she'd been pretty happy, but she always seemed like she had some kind of worry or weight on her shoulders. Not now, though. She was back to the old Elena without a single care in the world. Her only goal was to have fun.

* * *

After a few minutes, Bonnie and Caroline had got tired and went to go rejoin the group, but Elena and Damon were having too much fun to stop.

As Rebekah stood on the sidelines, clinging to Matt, she looked over at Elena and Damon in disgust.

"They make me want to puke," She commented.

"Oh shut up," Caroline said, voicing what no one else would. "The world doesn't revolve around you. We're at a dance. If they want to dance, then they can. I think that they're cute, so just shut your mouth and stop pretending that anyone cares about your opinion."

Rebekah was clearly pissed off by that as she crossed her arms and shot Caroline a glare that would have made a weaker girl cry.

"Stop pretending that you have any control over what I do or any authority over me," Rebekah said angrily as she moved closer to Caroline, looking for a cat fight.

"Stop it," Klaus said, suddenly speaking up as he stuck his arm out to stop his sister.

Rebekah turned to her brother with a hurt look, "You're taking her side?"

"She's right, you're just being a brat," Klaus said.

"You're only saying that because you're practically in love with her," Rebekah responded angrily.

"No," Klaus said. "You're just saying  _that_  because you can't handle the truth and need to be the centre of attention all the time. You don't even care what kind of attention it is, you'll literally say anything to get a few heads to turn."

Caroline could tell that this wasn't some act from Klaus to impress her, it was the result of a bunch of pent up rage from little things that had built up over time. It was clear that Klaus was actually mad at Rebekah, and not just because Caroline was.

Rebekah rolled her eyes, "You think that you're so perfect when really you're just a self righteous prick." With that Rebekah stomped away.

Normally Caroline would have agreed with that, but she was surprised to find that she felt sorry for Klaus having to live with that.

* * *

A few minutes later another slow song came on.

"I don't think that I can properly fulfill my role as dorky teacher who likes to pretend that he's cool and friends with his students unless I dance to at least one song," Alaric told Jenna. "And I don't think that you'd properly be fulfilling your role as embarrassing aunt without dancing with a teacher at a school dance."

"Hey, I am not embarrassing," Jenna defended herself, playfully hitting Alaric's arm. "I'm cool Aunt Jenna."

"Are you sure about that?" Alaric asked. "Showing up at their school in your laundry day clothes, way more of an embarrassing Aunt Jenna thing to do than a cool Aunt Jenna thing."

"If you don't shut up about that, then I won't dance with you," Jenna told him embarrassedly.

"So that means that you were going to dance with me?" Alaric asked. "Then I guess I'm done talking now."

"Good," Jenna said as she allowed him to lead her to the edge of the dance floor.

* * *

Elena and Damon were dancing together once again, while Bonnie danced with Jeremy again as well.

Caroline was surprised when Klaus actually kept his promise to not try to get another dance out of her later. She couldn't believe that she was actually voluntarily doing it, as she walked over to him asked, "Do you want to dance?"

He looked up and raised an eyebrow at her, "I thought that I was only getting one. And you didn't exactly seem eager about it."

"I changed my mind," Caroline said with a small smile as she led him onto the floor.

"What? You couldn't find anyone else to dance with you?" Klaus asked as he slipped his arms around her waist. "I find that hard to believe considering how dashing you look tonight."

Caroline laughed a little at his wording choice. His family had only moved there from England a few years ago and sometimes he would word things in ways that seemed very strange to everyone else, but completely ordinary to him.

"I can't believe that I'm saying this, but you actually look pretty good yourself," Caroline told him. "Not many guys here can pull off the whole bow tie thing."

"I'm not most guys," Klaus told her.

* * *

As soon as Elena noticed Jenna and Alaric dancing together on the other side of the room a giant smirk formed on her face. Apparently it was even noticeable from the other side of the gym, since Jenna stuck her tongue out at Elena.

"What are you smirking about?" Damon asked her.

"That," Elena said, gesturing towards where Alaric and Jenna were dancing.

"What, your aunt and James Bond over there?" Damon said, causing Elena to laugh a little.

* * *

"Did you just stick your tongue out at your niece?" Alaric asked.

"Maybe," Jenna said, deciding not to even try to deny it.

"Very mature," Alaric said with a laugh.

"She was making faces at me," Jenna defended.

"She's a teenager," Alaric pointed out as he looked over at Damon and Elena. "I can't believe that those two still think that they're just friends. I don't even have them in the same class, but I've seen them around enough to know that it's complete bull."

"No kidding," Jenna said. "Especially considering the fact that Damon has just randomly shown up at our house because he was bored multiple times. And the first time I'd never seen him before and I came home at one in the morning to find him sleeping in Jeremy's room because he wasn't home. He scared the crap out of me, I had to wake Elena up and make sure that he wasn't some serial killer."

"That seems like positive parenting," Alaric responded. "You stay out until one in the morning while Elena has guys over to the house alone. And lets them stay over."

"Okay first off, it was Elena. It's not like she's going to throw some wild party," Jenna pointed out. "And second it was one guy, not guys. And third he was sleeping in a completely different room and it was already one in the morning."

"So Elena was the responsible adult going to bed at a decent time and telling the boy that if he was sleeping over he had to be in Jeremy's room, while you were out partying until one in the morning?" Alaric asked.

"Not out partying," Jenna corrected. "Out on a terrible date. I'm kind of a terrible date magnet."

"So what you're saying is that when I take you out for my victory dinner, you're going to have really low standards?" Alaric asked. "You'd be impressed with a McDonald's drive thru?"

"As long as I can get chicken mcnuggets in a kid's meal," Jenna responded. "I want the toy. Besides, the nearest McDonald's is like twenty minutes away, so it would at least show a little bit of effort."

* * *

Damon was getting distracted a little too well at that point, it was as if all of his problems had drifted away and Elena wasn't just the girl that he went to with his problems, she was this fun girl cracking the lamest jokes who he was just having a great time with.

"See, you should have dressed up," Elena told him. "You could have looked like James Bond too. Or like the Monopoly man, that guy's pretty sexy. But I'm not sure that really works without the moustache."

Before he even realized what he was doing, suddenly he was leaning down and pressing his lips against hers roughly. Elena wrapped her arms tighter around his neck as she kissed back aggressively.

They stood there in the centre of the gym, kissing intensely for the rest of the song.


	10. Chapter 10

"I don't think that they're still pretending to just be friends," Alaric commented, gesturing towards the centre of the gym where Damon and Elena were kissing.

"Either that or they're  _really_  good at lying to themselves," Jenna agreed.

* * *

When it changed to an upbeat dance song, they pulled apart, and only then did they notice how many people were staring at them. Elena's cheeks flushed when she saw the not-so-subtle looks on Caroline and Bonnie's faces. She knew that she would be hearing a lot of smug 'I thought that there was nothing going on between you two's.

Damon, however, didn't seem to care what any of them thought, or whether they had been staring or not. He knew that he would be getting quite the speech from Stefan later about how he had seen that coming and blah, blah, blah, but once Damon had flipped the switch into carefree mode, he couldn't seem to switch it back on. He knew that he would once he got home, but for now he was just enjoying his time as an ordinary teenager.

Before either of them had a chance to say anything, Caroline had already made her way over there excitedly.

"About time," She said happily.

Damon laughed a little, wondering how Caroline could be that impatient. After all, it had been less than two weeks ago that he had even showed up at Elena's house for the first time. And even less time than that since he had first shown up back at his regular table to show that he was even talking to Elena.

Elena rolled her eyes a little at Caroline, who instantly said, "Don't you roll your eyes at me, you've been lying to me this whole time about there being nothing going on." And there it was.

"Caroline, let it go," Elena told her. "Here, I'll say it. There's something going on between me and Damon."

"It's a little bit late for that," Caroline pointed out. "But I'll take it."

"Now it's your turn," Elena said.

"For what?" Asked a confused Caroline.

"To admit that there's something going on between you and Klaus," Elena responded.

"There is not," Caroline said. "He likes me, I don't like him. Simple as that."

"Then why were you dancing with him?" Elena asked smugly.

"I danced with your brother too and there isn't anything going on there," Caroline pointed out. "And I gave him one dance so that he would stop asking. He said that if I danced with him once that he would leave me alone, so I did. End of story." Caroline had hoped that Elena had only noticed the second dance and was unaware of the first one since she had been distracted by dancing with Damon.

Unfortunately for her, that wasn't the case.

"Then what about the time after that?" Elena asked.

"It was just a dance," Caroline said, dodging the question.

"But I thought that the whole reason that you danced with him the first time was so that he would go away and wouldn't bother you again," Elena pointed out, grinning as she got a piece of payback at her friend. "Then why did you end up dancing with him again?"

"Shut up," Was Caroline's only answer before she walked away so that she wouldn't be asked again.

When Elena turned back to Damon, he was smirking a little at Caroline's reaction to the questions.

"Definitely something going on there," He agreed.

"I'm pretty sure that before we got interrupted by Caroline that you'd just kissed me," Elena pointed out with a slight grin.

"Yeah," Damon said. "What about it?"

"I just thought that I'd bring it up again," Elena said with a smile.

"You are such a dork," Damon said, mussing up her hair.

"I thought that you said that I'm not a dork," Elena pointed out as they began to head back towards the group.

"No, I just said that I wasn't calling you a dork at that specific point in time because you were dressed up," Damon said. "You're still a dork unrelated to the fact that you're wearing a dress. Just because I was saying that guys dressed up looked like dorks, didn't mean that I was saying that you weren't one."

"Then what does that make you, dork kisser?" Elena asked.

"Awesome?" Damon asked. His voice suddenly turned serious as he more quietly asked, "Why do you even like me?"

Damon immediately felt stupid and like an insecure girl after he had said it, yet he still needed to know the answer. How had he somehow made this amazing, beautiful girl like him even after acting like a complete jerk to her and everyone else, breaking down and crying in front of her, and after she had found out everything about his dad?

"What kind of question is that?" Elena asked, stopping walking and turning towards him.

"A serious one," Damon responded, if he was going to make himself look that insecure, he may as well get an answer out of it.

"Why wouldn't I like you?" Elena shot back at him, genuinely confused.

"Because I'm a jerk who randomly started to ignore everyone who cares about him for over a month," Damon began to list, making sure that he was quiet enough that no one else would be able to overhear. "And because I show up at your house like crying like an emotionally unstable person, because of everything you found out about my dad, because you're perfect Elena Gilbert and I'm Damon never-will-be-as-good-as-his-brother Salvatore."

"Is that what you really think?" Elena asked, laughing a little at the fact that Damon could even believe such a ridiculous thing. "You're not a jerk, okay?  _Tyler_  is a jerk. And you were ignoring them for justifiable reasons. If I were you, I wouldn't want people to find out either. And really, you think that  _I'm_  perfect? I am so far away from perfect. I mean the reason that my parents were even on the bridge that they crashed off of in the first place is because they were picking me up at a party that I snuck out to and got so drunk at that I needed them to come pick me up. And Stefan isn't perfect either, and he isn't better than you.

Maybe at some things he is, but you're a lot better at other things. Like dancing for example. And if you think that I would like you any less just because I've seen you cry and I know about your dad, then you are out of your mind. Why would that change anything?"

Because it made him look weak like he was some broken guy who she couldn't repair and shouldn't even keep around to try. Because he had thought that she would have run away, or at least been uncomfortable around him after finding out instead of them getting closer. Because most of the things that his dad said were true, and at some point Elena was going to smarten up and figure that out.

Damon didn't voice any of these reasons, he just stood there letting Elena's arguments and efforts to convince him make him feel a little bit better.

* * *

Elena didn't understand how Damon even thought that those things were reasons against him. One of the reasons that she had begun to like him in the first place was because he had been strong enough to come to her house crying instead of continuing to pretend that nothing was wrong. A lot of guys wouldn't be brave enough to show their emotions in front of anyone, and would refuse to show any sign of vulnerability, or if they did would try to turn it around into being the other person's imagination and fault. Too many guys at their school just acted like dicks at any sign of vulnerability because they weren't man enough to show their own.

She didn't understand why he thought that she wouldn't like him just because his dad was a jackass either. It's not like it was his fault that any of it was happening, or like it made him some horrible person somehow.

The silence held for a few minutes longer as Elena studied Damon's face, just barely able to see the doubt hidden behind his calm and cool mask. Once she was able to recognize it, it was like the mask had never been there, just the self consciousness and all that she wanted to do was get rid of it.

Elena stretched up onto her tippy toes and kissed him once again. This time it was a short and sweet kiss that said everything that she couldn't say or convince him of by using her words.

"I think I could still use a little more convincing," Damon said with a smirk after she pulled away.

"Oh really?" Elena asked with a smile as she leaned into press her lips against his once again.

* * *

After the kiss ended several seconds later, he grabbed her hand in his and they walked the rest of the way back to their group of friends, pretending not to notice the different looks on their friend's faces. Some were of shock from the oblivious few, Matt and Klaus. Some were smirks that said 'about damn time' from Bonnie, Caroline, Stefan, and Jeremy. There was one of disgust and boredom from Rebekah.

* * *

When the next slow song came on, Damon and Elena danced together once again while Jeremy and Caroline, and Bonnie and Matt paired off as well. Stefan tried to stay on the sidelines, but Rebekah wanted to dance and the only other guy left was Klaus. After a few tries, she finally managed to convince a begrudging Stefan to dance with her.

Rebekah was still upset over the things that Matt and Klaus had said to her, while she also wanted to try and make Matt jealous. That, combined with the fact that Stefan was the one treating her the nicest, was what led to her leaning in to try and kiss him halfway through the song.

"Rebekah, no."

Stefan just managed to dodge her attempts, confused by why the blonde who so clearly had feelings for Matt was making a move on him. He saw the hurt in her eyes after he had moved out of the way, and began to feel guilty about it, especially when he noticed that a lot of people had been looking at the time.

Rebekah quickly pulled away from him before he could try to say anything else, then headed towards the gym doors before the tears that were welling up in her eyes could get the chance to start falling.

* * *

During the next slow song, Matt danced with her out of pity for what had happened with Stefan, while Caroline and Klaus, Bonnie and Jeremy, and Damon and Elena once again paired off.

As Elena danced with Damon, she noticed that Stefan was alone on the side once again, and became distracted in her thoughts. Stefan had been acting more and more off during the night. At least during the start of the night he had been somewhat willing to dance with people, but out of the last three slow songs he had sat out for two. And the other Rebekah had practically forced him into, and had left halfway through after the almost kiss. It wasn't that no one was willing to dance with him, it was that he was choosing to stand alone instead. It was like the Salvatore brothers had suddenly switched roles.

* * *

When the song ended, Elena told Damon that she'd be back, then headed over to Stefan.

"What's wrong, isn't there anyone that you want to dance with?" Elena asked him as she pulled him aside from where the group had been forming again, minus Bonnie and Caroline who were dancing to the One Direction song that was playing. "Or is there just something really exciting about that wall that I've been missing out on?"

"Maybe there's someone," Stefan responded. "But maybe I don't want them finding out."

"I wouldn't tell," Elena said sincerely, then began to grin. "But if you're afraid of me telling her, then it has to be someone that I talk to. And obviously it isn't Rebekah. Which leaves Caroline and Bonnie.. Which means that you should make your move because it looks like there might be something going on between Caroline and Klaus, and Bonnie's been dancing with Jer a lot."

"It isn't either of them," Stefan told her.

"Then who?" Elena asked, confused. "It's not.."

"No," Stefan said, chuckling a little. "It's not you. It's.." He cut himself off.

Stefan did want to tell someone, but normally this would be the kind of thing that he would want to go to Damon about. But with the way that Damon had been acting, he knew that he couldn't. He debated for a few seconds, trying to decide whether or not he should tell her. In the end, the need to have someone know won out.

"If I tell you, you can't tell anyone. Including Damon," Stefan said.

"I swear I won't," Elena agreed.

Stefan hesitated for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to say it.

"Okay, the reason that you couldn't figure it out is because it isn't a-" He cut himself off mid-sentence once again as he nervously decided to change his wording and spit it out before he could psyche himself out. "It's Matt."

Stefan felt a mixture of relief at having someone know, as well as embarrassment and nervousness about how she would react.

Elena could see the worry on his face as she pulled him into a hug.

"I think that you two would be adorable together," Elena told him.

Stefan laughed a li

* * *

ttle and rolled his eyes, although he was thrilled that she was being supportive.

* * *

When they returned to the group, Rebekah asked, "Now you need both brothers, Elena?"

Rebekah smirked as she stood clinging to Matt the way that she had been since he had given her the pity dance.

"Yup," Elena immediately answered. "In fact I don't just need both of them, I need all of the guys here. And I already danced with your brother, so I guess that Matt's next on the list."

She grabbed Matt's other arm and dragged him away from the fuming blonde.

* * *

Once they reached where Bonnie and Caroline were already dancing, Matt gave Elena a grateful look as he said, "Thanks, I couldn't get rid of her."

"Just helping out a friend," Elena said with a smile.

* * *

Although Stefan could handle the sight of Rebekah clinging to Matt, he still appreciated what Elena had done.

* * *

A few minutes later as the last slow song of the night came on, Damon walked over to Elena and asked, "Do I get another turn?"

"Definitely," Elena told him.

The dance ended with the song and Elena kissed Damon goodbye before going to go find Jenna and Jeremy.


	11. Chapter 11

In the car on the way home, Elena casually commented, "So you and Alaric seemed pretty friendly."

"So did you and Damon," Jenna responded. "Like  _really_  friendly. Why don't we talk about that instead?"

"Nope, I brought you and Alaric up first," Elena argued.

"Fine," Jenna said with a dramatic sigh, even though she had been waiting to gush out every detail to Elena all night. She had just been hoping to hear about Elena's night first. And hoping that she would be able to wait until they were away from Jeremy, who just didn't understand a girl's need to repeat every detail of encounters that they have with guy to other girls.

* * *

Jenna didn't finish telling her story about how they had hung out all night, he had asked her to dance, and how he had asked her out in the stupid bet, until almost an hour after they got back to their house.

"So now it's your turn to dish," Jenna said with a grin.

"I'm with Damon now," Elena said.

There was an awkward silence before Jenna raised an eyebrow and asked, "That's it? End of story."

"Pretty much," Elena responded.

"I just gave you an hour long tale of how I got asked out and you give me a four word story about your night where you somehow convinced Mr. Too Cool For School to dance and ended up kissing him. Multiple times. I'm gonna need just a few more details than that," Jenna responded.

"Fine," Elena said with a groan even though, just like her aunt, she had wanted to tell the story. Her groan was genuine though, since she knew that she would have to leave out or make up chunks of detail that would probably lead to four hundred more questions from her nosy aunt. "So it turns out that the reason that Jeremy got into the fight with Tyler was because he was saying a bunch of perv stuff about me. And we thought that he'd given up and decided to leave me alone after Damon threatened him, but then he was coming over to try and convince me to dance with him. So then Damon, who had been refusing to dance all night and had just been standing by the wall the whole time, decided that he was going to play the hero and asked me to dance before Tyler got there." She stopped talking again.

"Okay, so how did that turn into making out in the middle of the gym a slow dance later?" Jenna asked.

"After that dance, I barely managed to convince him to actually dance instead of going back to lurk in his corner. And then during the next slow song, he just kissed me out of nowhere. I don't even know why it happened," Elena admitted. "One second I'm making a stupid joke about the Monopoly man, and then out of nowhere he just kissed me."

"Note to self, Monopoly man jokes make boys kiss you," Jenna commented.

"I don't think that it really works that way," Elena argued with a slight giggle. "It doesn't seem like an universal thing, it seems more like the kind of thing that would work on one.. Maybe two guys ever."

"Well a girl can still try it," Jenna joked.

Elena was glad when Jenna seemed to accept her still very short explanation as being sufficient. She hoped that since Caroline and Bonnie had been so intent that this was going to happen, that they wouldn't really need many details either.

* * *

"I thought that you don't dance," Stefan said with a slight smirk as Damon began to pull out of the school parking lot.

"Shut up," Damon instantly shot back.

"It sure looked like you dance," Stefan kept going.

"I said shut up," Damon said once again.

"You must really like her if you were willing to actually participate in a school dance for her," Stefan commented.

Damon was beginning to get very annoyed with his brother as he rolled his eyes and asked, "So what's going on here? You want to have a touch- feely conversation about feelings and do the whole brotherly bond thing?"

The smile on Stefan's face disappeared. He didn't understand why Damon had to be such a jerk about everything. This was the kind of thing that they had used to talk about all the time, but now Damon acted like Stefan was an idiot for even wanting to talk about anything whatsoever.

"What's wrong with you?" Stefan asked, getting sick of pretending that the way Damon ignored him all the time didn't piss him off. "Why are you such an asshole now? I thought that you were starting to get better again once you started hanging out with Elena, but it turns out that the only time that you're ever nice is to her. You do remember the fact that we used to talk about everything, right? Or am I just crazy and imagining that? Because now talking about the smallest thing like pizza turns you into a total jerk. Which one's the act Damon? The personality that you put on in front of Elena or the one that you change into every time that she's gone?"

Damon stared out the front window and refused to even acknowledge the fact that his brother had spoken. He had been in a good mood, even feeling a lot better about himself, until Stefan had decided to bitch him out. Damon was sick of fighting with Stefan, but he couldn't act normal around him without falling back into the routine of telling Stefan absolutely everything. Including the fact that their dad beats him. And Stefan wasn't like Elena, he would go into instant pity mode like Damon was a puppy with three broken legs. And Damon knew for a fact that Stefan would want to take matters into his own hands and bitch out his dad, which would only end up getting Stefan hit too. Or if Damon could convince him to not do that, Stefan would still want to go tell someone about it and try to get them out of that house so that they could end up living in some crappy foster home where they'd probably both get beaten and the only thing that they would get out of it would be having a whole bunch of people find out and Stefan being worse off. The only problem was that every time that his brother made that stupid sad face, Damon came that much closer to going back to normal. And the hurt face that Stefan was giving Damon right then was a record breaker. Damon didn't know how much longer he could hold out before he ended up making things go straight back to the way that they had been for years.

* * *

As Damon lay in bed that night, unable to sleep, he desperately tried to think of ways to protect Stefan while acting more like his old self around Stefan. Within a few hours, Damon had convinced himself that things could go back to normal in between him and Stefan, even if he continued to hide that one thing from him. He also convinced himself that he wouldn't have a problem keeping the secret anymore since he had someone else to talk to about it. As long as his mind didn't change before then, Damon decided that he would try to at least make a little more of an effort to not snap at Stefan for everything. And to answer the type of questions that he could about his life, but had chosen not to before in an effort to completely block out Stefan.

* * *

After making that decision, Damon was able to fall asleep within a few minutes. He woke up the next morning at around noon and went downstairs to get some breakfast, only to find that Stefan was already in the kitchen when he got there.

As he walked over to the counter to make some toast, Damon reminded himself of the decision that he had made the night before.

Stefan hadn't said a word or so much as look up from his cereal when Damon had entered the room. Clearly he was still mad, and had decided that he wasn't letting it go as easily this time.

Damon also remained silent, expecting Stefan to break the silence at any moment. When Damon sat down next to him at the table with his toast, Stefan still continued to pretend that Damon wasn't there and that there was something very interesting about his Corn Pops.

"Hi," Damon said in an attempt to get his brother to say something without pissing him off immediately.

Stefan turned to look at him and responded in an annoyed tone, "Hi."

He then grabbed his bowl off of the table and headed out of the room.

Of course as soon as Damon had decided to make an effort with Stefan, Stefan had finally given up on making an effort with him. Damon had only been waiting for this to happen for about two months, but now that Stefan actually had given up, Damon just felt like crap.

Damon chose not to follow Stefan, figuring that it would just piss his brother off more. Damon figured that the safer bet was waiting until Stefan came back with his dirty bowl, or at least waiting a few hours before trying again so that Stefan hopefully wouldn't be as angry.

* * *

When Stefan did return, he walked in as silent as he had been before and stuck his bowl and spoon in the sink, then turned to leave without so much as one word or glance towards Damon.

"What are you doing today?" Damon tried again.

Stefan stopped and turned to look at his brother with a hostile confusion as he asked, "Why do you care?'

"I'm bored," Damon responded with a shrug.

"And why is that  _my_  problem?" Stefan asked. "Do you honestly think that you're going to say like ten words to me, then we'll spend the day together and suddenly be okay just so that you can feel better about yourself and go back to being a dick? Why don't you go hang out with your new girlfriend? Unlike me, she still believes your act."

Now Damon had an idea of how Stefan must have felt once he had began to ignore him. Only for Stefan it must have been even worse because he hadn't done or said anything to cause it, and he had no idea why his best friend and brother suddenly seemed to hate him.

Before Damon could even begin to think of something to say, Stefan had already left the room again.

* * *

Damon finished eating and tried to figure out how he could even begin to fix things with Stefan, who must be even more hurt than he was. He continued thinking for several hours and came up with absolutely nothing.

And yet he all he could do was sit in his room, feeling the guilt pile on more and more as he attempted to think of any idea of what he could do. Anything at all. At this point he'd accept even the stupidest of plans.

It wasn't until Elena texted him that he was able to drag his thoughts off of it for a second.

* * *

**From Elena:**

_What are you doing?_

**From Damon:**

_Literally nothing._

**From Elena:**

_So you're just sitting in your room doing absolutely nothing?_

**From Damon:**

_I was right up until you texted me._

**From Elena:**

_What, you don't have anything better to do with your day than just sit there?_

**From Damon:**

_I tried to do something, it didn't go well. So I gave up on everything._

**From Elena:**

_Because if one thing doesn't work, then obviously nothing else even has the slightest chance of working._

**From Damon:**

_I sense sarcasm._

**From Elena:**

_I wonder why._

_So what did you try to do that was even funner than the idea of sitting in one spot doing nothing all day?_

**From Damon:**

_I tried to make things better between me and Stefan, but he hates me._

**From Elena:**

_No, he doesn't. He just thinks that you hate him and doesn't understand why._

**From Damon:**

_Well it's not really something that I can fix without him going off and doing something stupid and getting himself hit._

_Because any attempts at going back to normal without a damn good reason for being a jackass for two and a half months is not going to work._

**From Elena:**

_Maybe that's not true. I mean you did give up after one attempt, when it took him two months to give up on you._

_Maybe he just wants you to know how it feels and make sure that this isn't some be back to normal for a day on a whim, then go back to being a jerk again thing._

**From Damon:**

_Actually I gave up after two attempts._

_So what? I'm supposed to just keep trying for two months straight in the hopes that this is just some test and he'll randomly just wake up one morning and be back to normal when we're even?_

**From Elena:**

_No, there isn't going to be some schedule to it, but eventually he will forgive you and let you back in._

**From Damon:**

_You would make a really good guidance counsellor or something._

**From Elena:**

_Not really._

**From Damon:**

_So then you're saying that your advice is terrible and I shouldn't listen to you?_

**From Elena:**

_No, smartass. You still should listen to it because it's good advice._

_But just because I know what to say about this one topic, doesn't mean that I would know what to say about the four hundred other problems that kids would come in with._

**From Damon:**

_Fine. So what are you doing, or what were you doing before you started texting me?_

**From Elena:**

_I was w_ _riting an essay about the symbolism used in Lord of the Flies._

**From Damon:**

_Exciting stuff._

**From Elena:**

_Not really. Writing about what a decapitated pig head that's covered in flies, and a dead guy hanging from a parachute represent isn't exactly my idea of fun._

**From Damon:**

_So writing about dead things isn't fun or exciting, but watching me cry is?_

**From Elena:**

_Yeah, that's exactly what my idea of the perfect day is. Just watching you cry like a baby all day long._

**From Damon:**

_Sicko._

**From Elena:**

_It beats your favourite hobby of sitting or standing around all by yourself doing absolutely nothing._

**From Damon:**

_Just because that's what I was doing when you texted me, doesn't mean that it's my favourite hobby._

**From Elena:**

_It's always what you're doing. Every lunch that I tried to get you to come back to the caf, for the whole first half of the dance, right before I texted you..._

_Are you a robot that just powers down with it's eyes open whenever there's nothing better to do?_

**From Damon:**

_No. And aren't robots supposed to have no emotions whatsoever?_

**From Elena:**

_Not the ones programmed to love, maybe you're one of those._

**From Damon:**

_So I'm a sextoy robot now? And I'm pretty sure that if I was a robot that I would know._

**From Elena:**

_No. And that's what all of the robots say right before they find out that they actually are and either self destruct or go try to kill someone in like every robot movie ever._

**From Damon:**

_And what? You're an expert on the subject of robot movies?_

**From Elena:**

_No, I'm an expert on the subject of Disney movies._

**From Damon:**

_Quite an accomplishment for a high schooler._

**From Elena:**

_Don't mock me, Disney movies are the best and you know it._

**From Damon:**

_I've only ever seen like two of them. One of them was Dumbo, and I think that the other one was about some cowboy guy._

**From Elena:**

_You mean Toy Story?_

**From Damon:**

_Yeah, that's the one._

**From Elena:**

_You don't even know how disappointed I am that you didn't even remember the name of it._

_You've seriously never even seen 101 Dalmatians, or Snow White, or The Little Mermaid, or Pinnochio, or Mary Poppins, or Alice in Wonderland, or Monsters Inc.?_

**From Damon:**

_You do realize that I'm a guy, right?_

**From Elena:**

_They're kids' movies, not girls' movies. No offence, but you're a total freak for only having seen two Disney movies ever._

**From Damon:**

_Thanks_

**From Elena:**

_I'm making you watch some. And don't even try to complain because it is much better than staring at a wall for hours._

**From Damon:**

_Why do you automatically assume that I was going to complain?_

**From Elena:**

_Because any time that anyone tells you to do something ever, you have to put up a big giant fight beforehand._

**From Damon:**

_I do not. In fact I'm coming over right now._

**From Elena:**

_Good._

* * *

By the time that Damon had reached Elena's house, she had already decided that they were going to watch Alice in Wonderland first and already had the movie in and waiting to be played.

At first Damon had only agreed to watch the movie because he had nothing better to do, Elena had said that he never did anything without an argument, and because Elena was there. But within a few minutes of the movie, he was actually, as much as he hated admitting it to himself, enjoying the children's movie and was surprisingly focused on it.

* * *

When Jeremy walked downstairs to find Elena leaning against Damon on the couch while watching Alice in Wonderland, he rolled his eyes and asked, "You're watching this again? You do realize that this is a movie for eight year olds right?"

Elena just stuck her tongue out at him, then went back to watching her movie.

* * *

Before Damon went back home, they also ended up watching The Jungle Book, then had supper, and then watched Monsters Inc. While he was there, he had almost forgotten about all of his guilt and problems at home, but as he drove home it all came rushing back to him.

* * *

When Damon entered the house to find his dad already passed out in front of the tv with a half drunk beer in his hands and several empty bottles around him, he headed straight upstairs to look for Stefan.

"Have you ate anything yet?" Damon asked as he stood in the doorway of his younger brother's room. Stefan was doing something on his computer and ignored Damon. "Do you want food or not?"

Stefan looked up for a second with a face tough as rock, then looked back down disinterestedly.

"Fine," Damon said and turned to head back to his own room.

* * *

Stefan had just about said something, but stopped himself at the last second. He didn't understand why Damon's attitude towards him just randomly switched back and forth all the time. There had been the initial switch into ignoring him, then little tiny moments where he had almost seemed normal, but then instantly switched back into jerk mode during the last few weeks. Stefan couldn't understand for the life of him why Damon seemed to want to ignore him and constantly stopped himself from letting Stefan in. Or what made his switch flip like that any of the times.

What Stefan did know was that he wasn't going to let himself get his hopes up that this time it would last and Damon would just act normal. He knew that the instant that he let his guard down, Damon would go right back to being a jerk again and Stefan wasn't going to let himself look stupid and be let down again. The only reason that Damon was even still trying was because of the fact that Stefan was ignoring him. If he tried to fix things too, then Damon would have won and instantly give up.

Even though the logical part of his mind knew this, it was still hard to ignore Damon's efforts after months of hoping that one day Damon would just snap back to normal. But people didn't just snap back to normal, it took time and this was just too easy to be true. If it was as simple as snapping at Damon and giving up on him to get him back, then there are a lot of people who would have had him back a long time ago.

* * *

Damon went into his room and looked at the clock to see that it was beginning to get late, but not quite late enough to go to bed, so instead he grabbed one of the few books off of his shelf and began to read. He wasn't exactly a reading kind of guy, but he figured that he'd give it a try to see if he could at least distract himself or have something to do instead of sitting or laying on his bed waiting until it was time to go to bed, or go to school, or for someone else to find him. Damon hadn't noticed it as much before Elena had pointed it out, but he really didn't do much other than sit by himself. It was like he didn't really want to do anything that he could do without having his world collapse around him so instead he just sat there.

Damon wanted to get rid of as much of that version of himself as possible so he decided to read just to do something. Now he just needed to get Stefan to talk to him, and the only thing left would be his dad and the lies that he would tell to cover that up.

Who was he kidding? He would never be able to go back to normal, even if he told everyone. It was far too late to just go back to normal with everyone with a simple 'Oops, my bad. I just didn't feel like dealing with people.' And it was too big of a thing to tell people without having it change the way that all of them would think of him and act around him. If he told them, then he would just constantly be labelled as the guy whose dad beats him. He could never go back to being just plain old Damon Salvatore. The closest he would get to a clean slate would be to lie his ass off about his dad and pretend that he's okay, while trying to be nice to people and make them think that he was perfectly happy and perfectly honest with them.

Damon was just so sick of all of the acting though. It was like all that he ever did was pretend that he was okay. Pretend that he hated Stefan, and now pretend that there had never been anything wrong between him and Stefan. Then there was the act where he pretended that he didn't care what anyone thought, and that he didn't care about any of his old friends. And the act where he pretends that everything's alright except for when it's at it's very worse around Elena.

It was all so exhausting, it had been so much easier to keep up the act when he ignored everyone and only occasionally had to put up a show for Stefan. But the only way that anything would get any better was to keep up the positive act until he got into a routine with it.

He wished that he could leave that house, but he knew that he wouldn't even be able to do it once he turned eighteen because he would have to stay behind and put up with all of that crap from his father just so that he could make sure that he wouldn't so much as lay a finger on Stefan.

Damon wanted to talk about all of this to Elena, but he couldn't. He already seemed screwed up enough, and if he let her find out just how much worse things were than she already knew, he was sure that she would turn and run. He couldn't let that happen, she was the only good thing that Damon had, and he knew that without her he would revert right back into his defensive shell where he would ignore everyone and everything around him.

* * *

Damon tried talking to Stefan a few more times on Sunday with no response once again. At least Stefan had begun to occasionally looked at him, but he still was getting the cold shoulder. Stefan didn't say a single word to him all day.

* * *

On Monday morning, neither of the Salvatore brothers said anything to each other until it was time to leave for school.

"You ready?" Damon asked.

Stefan didn't say a word and just walked past him out the front door.

"I take it that's a yes," Damon muttered under his breath as he followed his brother out the front door.

* * *

"So you're seriously just going to sit there and not talk to me?" Damon asked as they drove to school in an uncomfortable silence. "Don't you think that's a little immature?"

Stefan snorted a little.

"See, that's progress," Damon pointed out. "Good."

Stefan rolled his eyes, it was ridiculous that Damon was bitching about one car ride where Stefan didn't talk to him, while Stefan had gone through hundreds where Damon had acted the exact same way and seen nothing wrong with it. He would have pointed it out if he hadn't known that speaking, even just for that purpose, would only make Damon happy and feel like he was winning.

* * *

When they arrived in the parking lot, Jeremy was halfway across the parking lot while Elena was just locking her car. She headed over to the Salvatore brothers with a smile.

"Hey, Elena," Stefan said, making a point of talking to her and not to Damon. Maybe it was immature, but Stefan more than deserved to be allowed to be a little immature after the way that his brother had treated him.

"Hi," Elena responded and looked between them confused. She was able to sense that something was off just by the tone in Stefan's voice.

"He's ignoring me," Damon explained, with a tilted smirk. "The last thing he said to me was on Saturday and it wasn't very nice."

Stefan rolled his eyes and Elena looked between them uncomfortably. She could tell that Stefan wanted to yell something at Damon very badly, and was barely able to control himself. Elena understood both sides of the argument and she had no idea what to say. She couldn't explain why Damon had acted that way before so she couldn't do anything to convince Stefan that it wasn't Damon's fault. And she already knew that Damon was trying his hardest to fix things and that nothing more could be done there.

"Nobody's going to say anything now?" Damon asked. "Fun crowd."

Stefan bit his tongue to keep from saying, 'Now you know how it feels to be around you'.

Elena chose to speak up after that, hoping that maybe she could at least relieve a little bit of the tension, but before she could, Stefan spoke again.

"Bye, Elena," Stefan said looking straight at her and ignoring his brother's existence. "I have to go grab my binder and stuff out of my locker before class,  _Elena_."

"Bye," Elena said, not really sure of what else she could possibly say to that.

Stefan walked away and then it was just Damon and Elena left.

"Isn't he just a barrel full of rainbows?" Damon asked.

"He'll come around," Elena told Damon before stretching up to kiss him.

"I hope so," Damon said. "But it really doesn't seem like he will. And even if he does, it won't be for a long time."

"I don't know about that," Elena responded. "He looked like he was pretty close to saying something a few times."

"Yeah, but he doesn't," Damon pointed out. "He just thinks angry things at me very loudly."

"Eventually he's either going to get to the point where he starts to trust that you're actually going to stay normal again, or to the point where telepathic communication just won't cut it and he'll be so angry that he'll have to actually yell at you," Elena pointed out.

"And yelling at me is a good thing, why?" Damon asked as they began to head towards the school.

"Because then he'll actually be telling you how he feels and about all of the reasons that he can't trust you. And then you can try to talk to him and make things better, or at least get a better idea of what you need to do to make him believe in you again," Elena explained.

"That is assuming that I don't say anything incredibly stupid when he does," Damon pointed out.

"You'll be fine," Elena told him as they entered the front doors of the school.

Damon resisted the urge to respond with, 'That's what you think'.


	12. Chapter 12

At lunchtime, Damon sat down next to Elena and across from a very grumpy looking Stefan. Instead of looking down at his lunch, Stefan glared straight at his brother. Damon wasn't sure whether it was worse having Stefan avoid his gaze or glare at him.

Damon couldn't make himself look away, so instead he stared back at his brother with a blank expression on his face.

Within a few minutes, others at the table besides Elena began to pick up on the aggression and noticed the look that Stefan was giving Damon. As each noticed, they went silent and began to stare at the brothers. Neither brother seemed to care whether the others noticed or not.

It was Matt who finally spoke up and broke the awkward silence by asking, "What'd he do, pee in your Cheerios?"

Stefan continued to glare at his brother as he responded, "No, Matt. Don't worry about it."

"Oh my god, are you serious right now?" Damon asked. "It's not enough that you haven't said a single word to me for over two days or that you've been ignoring me for longer than that? You have to specifically say the name of every person that you're talking to, just to make sure that I don't make the mistake that you were talking to me? I'm not stupid, I can already tell that you aren't talking to me when you're answering Matt's question. Just like I knew that you were talking to Elena when you said hi to her, even without you specifically saying her name beforehand. And I would have known even if I hadn't been with you before that. Just like I would have known that you were talking to her when you were looking directly at her and said that you had to go get your stuff for class, even if you hadn't said her name twice in the process. Are you seriously going to keep doing this?"

Stefan's lip twitched up into a slight smirk.

"Oh, that's real nice," Damon commented sarcastically, not seeming to care that everyone at the table was staring at them intently. "Let me guess, you're doing it just because you know that it pisses me off."

Stefan remained frozen perfectly still with the smallest of smirks still spread across his face.

"That's what I thought," Damon commented. "Then I'm just going to have a completely one-sided conversation with you. So, Stefan, you enjoying your lunch? ...Interesting. So what do you think of the weather we've been having lately? ...Really? I can't believe it! ..So, what's new with you since you last talked to me like three days ago?.."

Stefan rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe that Damon was really going to do this.

"Seriously?" Damon asked, apparently becoming bored with his one person conversation. "Nothing? You're just going to sit there and roll your eyes at me because you're so perfect? I'm getting really sick of the whole not talking to me thing."

"Why?" Stefan asked, talking to Damon for the first time in days. "I thought that this should be like a dream come true for you, Damon. I mean you've talked to me more today alone than you've talked to me in weeks no matter how hard I tried. But that doesn't count because it was before you just randomly woke up and decided that you were going to pretend that nothing ever changed. Do you seriously not realize how hypocritical you are right now? I ignore you for three days and you act like I'm some horrible, super immature jackass just because you decided to stop ignoring me for no reason after two months. And complaining about it being silent during the car ride here? That's how you've made it every single time because I try to say something to you and you get pissed off for absolutely no reason whatsoever and start ignoring me every goddamn time. So don't you dare pretend that you're the victim here!"

Damon wasn't sure whether he should be happy or upset about the fact that Stefan had spoken to him. It was a good thing, but he didn't like the things that had been said and he had no way to defend himself. It was at that point that Damon suddenly became very conscious of the eight other people at the table who were watching the entire fight a little too interestedly.

"Who isn't talking now?" Stefan asked after a short pause. "That's because you want to pretend that I'm the problem, but you've been the whole time."

"You know what," Damon said. "I'm not stupid. I know that I was the problem before and if I wasn't a jackass before that we wouldn't be having this fight right now. But guess what, I was a jackass. And I know that. But I'm trying to make things better. We also wouldn't be fighting if you would make an effort too, so why don't you accept a little responsibility? This may all have been my fault to start with, but if I'm trying to fix it and you're too busy stooping to my level, then I'm not the only one to blame. And this whole time you've been acting like you want me to go back to normal, but the instant that I tried to, you turned into a dick too. Looks like I wasn't the only one putting up an act, Stefan."

Stefan glared back at his brother as he argued back, "So you think that after two months of being a total jerk that just because now you've decided that you want to change that you get to act like you're the one taking the high road and like I'm just as responsible because I've been mean to you for a whole three days? All because you got a little taste of your own medicine and you couldn't handle it."

"Fine," Damon responded. "Say whatever the hell you want to about me. Blame me for whatever the hell you want to, give me whatever the hell kind of payback you want, but it's not going to make me leave you alone and eventually you're going to have to give in."

Stefan didn't say another word to his brother and Damon remained silent now too. It remained ridiculously quiet for a few minutes, and then, little by little, small groups of people began to talk again until the table got back relatively to normal. The only difference was the fact that Damon and Stefan refused to talk to each other or even participate in the same conversation.

* * *

During history class, Elena could feel the waves of anger rolling off of the boy in the seat next to her.

"For what it's worth he really is trying," Elena whispered to him.

"I know he is," Stefan whispered back to her. "But I know Damon. Right now he really thinks that he wants things back to normal, and he really is trying. But within a day or two of me giving in, he'll change his mind and go right back to being a dick and ignoring me again. I'm just not putting up with that again."

Elena hadn't known that it was a recurring thing.

"Again?" She asked, and then realized afterwards that she was probably being too nosy.

Stefan didn't seem to notice though as he simply responded, "For the last few weeks there's been the occasional time where it seems like he's back to normal, but as soon as I think it he gets pissed off about something and starts ignoring me again."

Elena wanted to tell Stefan that it wasn't his fault, or at least try to explain that Damon was just trying to help him. But if she said that without an explanation, she knew that Stefan would just assume that she was crazy and just trying to defend her boyfriend, even if she didn't know what was going on.

"I think it's different this time," Elena whispered, figuring that it was the best she could do for either brother.

"Just because he's still trying a couple days later? That's just because I'm ignoring him and he has to win," Stefan told her.

Elena remained silent for the rest of the class. She knew that she wouldn't be able to help anymore and that whatever else she'd say would just get her brought deeper and deeper into their argument.

* * *

When Damon reached his car at the end of the day, Stefan was already there waiting for him.

"How'd you get here so fast?" Damon asked only to discover that Stefan was playing the silent game again.

Damon would have told Stefan that he wouldn't drive him until he said something to him, but Damon knew that Stefan was so stubborn at that point that he would probably walk home just to prove a point. So instead, Damon unlocked the car and got in as he decided to allow it to remain silent for the whole trip home unless Stefan chose to speak by himself.

* * *

That night, Damon was going to order takeout for dinner since his dad and Stefan never cooked, but then he got an idea. Back before everything, Damon had used to cook chili, the one thing that he could make really well, for dinner every once in a while so that they would have something to eat other than pizza and takeout. He decided to make chili instead of ordering in with the hope that it would put Stefan in a better mood and remind him of the good old days before there had been so much drama between them. Their dad was out at some bar with a few of his friends, so Damon didn't have to worry about him and it could be just him and Stefan.

* * *

Stefan had been up in his room planning to skip dinner when Damon called him and reheat something later, when an amazing and very familiar smell wafted into his room. He hadn't smelt it for months, yet he instantly recognized it as Damon's chili. He wanted to skip dinner still, but his stomach betrayed him by growling loudly. Damon was cheating, but Stefan figured that he could still go eat the chili without having to talk to him, or at least not much.

* * *

Damon smirked a little when Stefan walked into the kitchen. He hadn't even had to go get Stefan himself, this was working out better than he had expected it to.

Stefan walked in slowly, as if he were afraid that Damon had set up trip wires all around the room. He reminded Damon of a scared animal that was coming out from hiding to get a treat.

"You hungry?" Damon asked.

Stefan stood there for a few seconds debating whether or not to speak or not. Finally he decided that he had better say yes if he wanted to get any food, but before he could Damon began to speak again.

"Okay, don't talk," Damon said as he grabbed a bowl for Stefan. "I'm just going to assume that you are and give you food. You can either eat it or not eat it, I don't care."

Damon poured some chili into the bowl and then handed it to his brother. He was a little surprised when Stefan took it and sat down and sat at the kitchen table instead of retreating into his room with his food. Damon made no comment though, knowing that it would only scare Stefan off. He simply poured himself a bowl and sat across the table from Stefan and ate in silence.

Stefan knew that this was all an attempt from Damon to make peace; it may as well have been an olive branch. But he still wasn't so sure. He didn't want to let himself get his hopes up only to have them crushed, yet even as he resisted he felt that his hopes were still going up. With each extra effort that Damon put in when he could have just given up, there was a part of Stefan's mind that tried to convince him that it was different this time. This wasn't just Damon trying to win, Damon usually would have just given up right off the bat and blamed Stefan for everything from then on, but this time he was making way more of an effort than usual. And if this was his only opportunity to fix things with Damon, he would feel like a complete idiot if he blew it assuming that it was all a charade. Maybe he should just give Damon a chance... But what if it was all a big game to Damon and he'd give up immediately after, leaving Stefan looking like an idiot and feeling like crap?

As Stefan sat there, staring at his brother who pretended not to notice, he got himself more and more confused. Within a few minutes, he had absolutely no idea what to believe anymore.

Damon saw the look of deep thought on his brother's face, but decided to stay silent instead of interfering. He figured that he was better off saying nothing because anything that he said would just end up being used against him in Stefan's mental argument. He was much better off just letting Stefan come to his own decision, even if it was still against him. If he didn't push the decision, then hopefully that would work out in his favour in future decisions. Damon wasn't planning on giving up any time soon, not when he knew even a portion of what his brother had felt. He couldn't stand the guilt of hurting his brother that way, so he would just have to try to get good with him again while protecting Stefan from their father so that he could hopefully be guilt free and have a happy brother.

Finally Stefan decided that he would start letting Damon in little by little, figuring that he'd either end up having Damon back to normal or worst case he would go after a carrot that was dangled in front of his face only to have it yanked away. But at least he wouldn't have to stare at it, wondering if he could get it for any longer.

"This is good," He commented, shocking Damon.

Damon felt like a twelve year old girl whose crush had just spoken to her for the first time. He hadn't expected it to be that easy to get Stefan to warm up to him even the slightest bit, especially after the way that lunch had gone that morning.

"Thanks," He answered, deciding not to push the conversation. If Stefan decided to bring something else up, then he would talk about it, but if not he would pretend that he hadn't even noticed that Stefan was at the table.

They ended up not saying anything else for the rest of their dinner, but the silence was much less uncomfortable than it had been before.

* * *

After dinner, Damon went upstairs and was about to go read again when he felt his phone buzzing loudly in his pocket. He pulled it out and smiled as he looked down and saw who it was from.

* * *

**From Elena:**

_How are things going with Stefan?_

**From Damon:**

_He ignored me at first, but then I made chili and he said something. Something nice._

**From Elena:**

_You can cook?_

**From Damon:**

_Chili's pretty much the only thing that I can successfully make. I like how that's what you get out of that text._

**From Elena:**

_Sorry. So that's a good sign even if he only said the one thing._

**From Damon:**

_Yeah, probably. Who knows, maybe one day a long, long time from now I might get a whole very pleasant conversation about the weather. I mean after all, today I got a whole two words about food._

**From Elena:**

_I thought that you had a pretty pleasant one sided conversation with him about the weather at lunch today. It was just all the other stuff that was not so pleasant._

**From Damon:**

_True._

**From Elena:**

_So how have things been with your dad lately?_

**From Damon:**

_Most of the time he's been passed out or at the bar so they haven't been that bad._

_Stefan has a football game tomorrow though so my options are come home and be home alone with my dad or go to the game and have an angry Stefan on my hands._

**From Elena:**

_So go to the game._

**From Damon:**

_But I don't want to piss him off again when he's just starting to talk to me again._

**From Elena:**

_So come to my house. We have a large collection of Disney movies and Jenna will be getting ready for her date with Alaric which should make for some pretty good comedy._

**From Damon:**

_It's a date._

* * *

The next morning when it was time to leave and Damon asked if Stefan was ready, he even got a nod in return. And during the car ride when Damon asked if he was still getting a ride with Matt to get to the game after school, Stefan even answered, even if it was with just a one word, 'Yeah'.

When they arrived in the parking lot, Elena's car was there, but she was already inside the school.

* * *

At lunch everyone at the table braced themselves when Damon showed up at the table and took the same seat, next to Elena and across from Stefan, once again.

There was no argument this time though, Damon just kissed Elena then began to eat his food and listen to the conversation that Bonnie, Jeremy, and Matt were having. Stefan didn't even glare at him; he just listened in on the conversation as silent as his brother.

After a few minutes, Klaus started up a side conversation with Damon, and then Stefan began to contribute to the other conversation.

Most people were surprised, especially Klaus, when Caroline chose to participate in Damon and Klaus's conversation instead of the other one.

"I thought that you hated me," Klaus commented with a smirk.

"I thought that you wanted me to talk to you," Caroline shot back.

"Believe me, love," Klaus told her. "I am not complaining."

Damon smirked a little and turned and gave Elena a 'they are so getting together' smirk even though he knew that Elena had figured out that there was something going on between them back at the dance. Suddenly the conversation had nothing to do with him and everything to do with Klaus and Caroline.  
Caroline was once again amused by how Klaus could pull of casually saying things that were ordinary to him, but would sound completely ridiculous coming out of any other guy at that school's mouth. If any other guy just randomly called a girl 'love', they would instantly be laughed at.

"Are you sure about that? Because it kind of sounded like you were complaining," Caroline commented with a catlike smirk. "I mean if you want me to join the other conversation.."

Elena and Bonnie immediately noticed the flirting going on between the pair. Apparently so did Rebekah since she groaned and rolled her eyes, then moved to go sit by Matt so that she wouldn't have to listen to her brother hitting on the blond bitch for the rest of the lunch hour.

* * *

Meanwhile, Caroline was glad that the blond bitch had left so that she could talk to Klaus without having to put up with his sister.

"She's a bit of a drama queen," Klaus whispered loudly.

"I heard that," Rebekah said irritatedly, throwing a crumpled up food wrapper at her brother and managing to just hit him in the head.

"That was the point," Klaus said with a smirk as he turned to look at her.

"I don't like you," Rebekah told her brother. "Especially when you're around her."

Rebekah glared back at Klaus and Caroline, who had already been giving her death glares of their own.

Matt noticed that a major catfight was about to start if someone didn't distract Rebekah, so he decided to bite the bullet and be that person since he was probably the best bet at calming her down anyways.

"Hey," He said leaning forward in his seat so that he was partially blocking Rebekah's view of the other two. "Ignore them."

Rebekah narrowed her eyes at the pair once more, and then turned her attention to Matt.

* * *

When the end of the day came, Elena drove to her house with Jeremy and Damon drove his own car over a few minutes later.

When he knocked at the door, it was Jeremy who opened it.

"Elena's upstairs with the crazy lady," Jeremy said as he let Damon into the house.

Damon's lip twitched up a little in amusement as he began to head up the stairs.

"Elena, I have absolutely nothing to wear!" Jenna practically shouted in panic.

"What are you talking about? Do you not see the layer of clothes that you've ripped from your closet coating the floor?" Elena asked.

Damon turned into the room just in time to see Jenna lay back on her bed exasperatedly.

"I give up," She said. "I can't wear any of that. I have no idea where we're going, so I don't know if I should be dressing fancy or normal and I've already embarrassed myself with my wardrobe enough the first time that I met him. How am I supposed to know what to wear? Especially when I've just noticed today that every single piece of clothing that I own is hideous! Why didn't you tell me how hideous all of my clothes were before? Because you're a horrible monster child who feeds off of my pain?"

Damon raised an eyebrow at Elena, who mouthed back to him, 'I told you. Entertaining'.

"Okay, first off all of your clothes aren't hideous, you're just convincing yourself of that because you're nervous," Elena said, grabbing her aunt's arm and pulling her back up off of the bed. "Second, you already embarrassed yourself with your wardrobe enough the first time that you met him, and yet he still asked you out afterwards."

"But if I dress all gross then he'll think that it's how I always dress and the only reason that I looked nice at the dance was because it was a formal thing," Jenna complained. "Or he'll think that I'm one of those girls that dresses all nice until a guy asks her out, and then as soon as she has a date, dresses like a total pig."

"I don't think that he'll think that after the way you were dressed when you first met him," Elena said with a snicker causing her aunt to glare at her. "Sorry, sorry... Just wear jeans and a nice shirt. That should work for almost anything."

"I don't own a nice shirt," Jenna said glaring at her niece.

"Seriously?" Elena asked, gesturing towards the clothing coated floor. "Not one of these shirts is even remotely nice?" The look on Jenna's face made Elena instantly give up on that approach. "Fine, you can borrow one of my shirts."

"Yay!" Jenna said, hugging Elena. "I take it back; you aren't a monster child after all."

"Thanks," Elena said sarcastically as she began to head for her room with Damon and Jenna following her.

Elena opened her closet and was going to look for something nice herself, when Jenna began to trash it the same way that she had done to her own.

"No, no, no, yes if I were your age, no, no, maybe, no," Shirt after shirt was thrown to the floor. "Yes."

"Thank god," Elena said, not meaning for that to come out loud.

"I'm going to let that go since I'm taking your shirt," Jenna said in a warning tone.

"Why are you so worried about your clothes anyways?" Damon asked causing Elena to turn around and look at him with a 'Why would you ever ask that?' facial expression.

At the same time, Jenna turned around and looked at him like he was mentally challenged.

"That's some kind of stupid teenage boy joke that I don't understand, right?" She asked incredibly seriously.

"Umm.. No," Damon said, confused. Elena did not look very happy with that answer. "Do you really think that he cares about how you're dressed? Do you honestly think that guys walk around and go 'Man that girl's got a nice purple shirt on, I should ask her out' or 'Well I would ask her out, but she's wearing a plaid skirt'? And you do realize that guys don't spend four hours getting ready like you do, right?"

"What do you know, seventeen year-old?" Jenna asked angrily.

Damon made the mistake of laughing a little, which only made Jenna glare at him more. Luckily for Damon, he wasn't even slightly afraid of her.

"He's probably going to show up in the same thing that he was wearing at school today," Damon commented.

"No he's not," Jenna immediately responded, but then began to wonder.

Damon seemed to pick up on this as he asked, "So then you wouldn't at all be interested in what that was?"

"No," Jenna said defensively.

"It was jeans and a nice shirt, you guys will match," Elena told her aunt. "Now step away from the closet before you change your mind again."

"I don't want to match," Jenna complained. "That's weird. And then it looks like I asked you what he was wearing and planned it to match and that's just creepy."

Damon covered his mouth to hide his snickering.

"I doubt that Alaric's wearing skinny jeans," Elena told her aunt. "Or a purple v neck shirt. It was a joke, Jenna. And jeans and a nice shirt is kind of a common look, not exactly stalkery seeming clothes. If I'd shown up to school a week ago in black jeans, a black t shirt, and a leather jacket, then that would be a stalkery clothing choice."

"Shut up," Damon said with a slight smirk.

"Okay I just have to ask," Elena began. "It's not the exact same clothes every day, right? You do have more than one set of clothes and you do wash them, right?"

"Yes," Damon responded, smirk still in place. "I think that if I never washed my clothes that you would be able to tell for sure. There would be no question about it."

"He's right, I would be able to smell him from here," Jenna said, then got a 'how do you know that' look from Elena. "There was a guy from the produce aisle who never washed his."

"And you went out with him?" Elena asked.

"He was attractive and in running clothes when I met him, I thought that was why he stunk. I didn't find out until later, okay?" Jenna responded defensively. "Stop judging me." Something on the floor seemed to catch Jenna's eye. "Actually, do you think that I could pull off that shirt at my age?"

"No," Elena said bluntly. "Now go change into the clothes that you already picked so that I can put the other ones away and not let you change for the rest of the night."

"Fine," Jenna whined as she looked to the ground and slowly dragged her feet on her way out of the room.

"It looks like you're the adult more than she is," Damon commented.

"That's because I am ninety-eight percent of the time," Elena told him as she began to pick up her clothes from the ground. Damon helped her and they were already finished before Jenna came back.

* * *

Jeremy, who had noticed the lack of noise coming from upstairs, had decided that it was safe and had just reached the top of the stairs when Jenna stepped out of the washroom and spotted him. Jeremy winced, which did not go unnoticed by his aunt.

"Does this look okay?" She immediately asked, deciding to store the wince for later yelling.

"I don't know, ask Elena," Jeremy said, hoping that he would be safe then.

"That means it's awful, doesn't it?" Jenna asked.

"What?" Jeremy asked, genuinely confused about where that was coming from.

"I asked if it looked okay, and you said that you didn't know. If it did look okay, you would know, but you said that you didn't because you think that it's awful, but you didn't want to be the one to break it to me because you know that I would start acting like a crazy woman," Jenna ranted.

"No, I said I don't know because I'm not a girl. It looks okay to me, but I don't know if it really is," Jeremy defended himself. "And I didn't give a yes or a no because I knew that any answer I could possibly give you would lead to crazy woman. I was just hoping that this one would lead to one 'You're useless' and a couple of angry names and then you would go find Elena and ask her instead." Jenna didn't seem very happy, but she didn't say anything else. "So can I go now or...?"

Jenna stared him down for a few more seconds, then turned around and re-entered Elena's room.

"It's awful, isn't it?" She asked Elena.

"No," Elena said. "Why would you think that?"

"Jeremy told me," Jenna responded.

Elena angrily headed out of her room and grabbed her twin brother, who was headed back down the stairs with his sketch book, by the back of the shirt.

"What?" Jeremy asked angrily as he turned around. "Are you trying to choke me to death?"

"You get to stay downstairs and get minimal crazy Jenna time," Elena said angrily. "Did you seriously just tell her that she looks awful after I finally got her to choose an outfit?"

"No," Jeremy said, pushing his sister's hand away from his shirt.

"Then why did she just tell me that you did?" Elena asked.

"Because she's crazy Jenna," Jeremy answered. "She asked if it looked okay and I said that I didn't know and then she exploded."

"You told her what?" Elena asked.

"That I didn't know," Jeremy repeated. "What's so bad about that?"

Elena resisted the strong urge to push her brother down the stairs as she said, "From now on if she asks if she looks okay, you tell her that she looks incredible; even if she's wearing a potato sack. Okay?"

"Alright, fine. Let go of me," Jeremy said.

Elena released her grip and gave her brother one last glare before she turned around to go back to her room and attempt some more damage control.

* * *

After Elena had stormed out of the room, Jenna had continued to panic and Damon had decided to risk making things worse by trying to help her, instead of continuing to stand there in silence.

"It's not awful," He told her.

"So it's just really, really bad?" Jenna asked.

"No," Damon responded. "It looks good. But it doesn't matter what you show up in because he's still lucky to be getting a date with you."

"Yeah, so lucky," Jenna said sarcastically. "He's joined the elite club where the only requirement is having something very, very wrong with you."

"So you think that there's something wrong with him?" Damon asked.

"No, that's what makes it worse," Jenna said. "I finally have a date with someone who isn't a total freak. And apparently my league is filled with freaks."

"Maybe the problem the whole time before wasn't that you were in a league with a bunch of losers, but that you were too good for all of them and they were so nervous that they screwed things up," Damon commented.

"So what you're saying is that I'm going to screw this up because I'm so nervous?" Jenna asked.

"No," Damon responded. "I'm saying that he is lucky. And you guys talked for like the whole dance, that basically was your first date so you shouldn't be nervous about this like it is."

"Maybe," Jenna admitted.

"Besides, if you showed up in disgusting laundry day clothes the first time that you met him and he still came over and talked to you the next time, then he should be impressed with anything that you wear tonight," Damon said with a smirk. "..As long as it isn't the same clothes as the first day. But even that can be spun around as a joke. And worst case you can completely blame me for convincing you to wear that. I really don't care about taking the blame on that one."

* * *

When Elena re-entered her room, she was shocked to find that Jenna was sitting on her bed, already seeming to have calmed down almost completely. In fact Jenna was the calmest that Elena had seen her since she had come home from school.

"Are you all right?" Elena asked anyways as a precautionary measure in case Jenna was really just waiting for the right second to completely freak out.

"Yeah, I'm good," Jenna said calmly.

Elena rose a 'What did you do?' eyebrow at Damon who just shrugged and pretended that he had no idea what was had happened to calm her down.

"You're still going to wear that, right?" Elena asked, bracing herself for an argument.

"Yeah, I think so," Jenna responded. "It does look okay, right?"

"It looks perfect," Elena told her.

"Okay," Jenna said. "I'm wearing this for sure.. Unless I decide that I need to change five seconds before he shows up."

"I'll keep you from changing at the last second," Elena promised.

Jenna wasn't sure if she was happy about that or not. It meant that she would be fully clothed when Alaric came to pick her up, but it would also mean that if she found something horribly wrong with that outfit at the last second that she would be forced to wear it anyways and feel embarrassed by it all night.

* * *

When Alaric knocked at the door, Elena had to practically push Jenna down the stairs to get her to go answer the door.

Jenna froze at the door, so Elena rolled her eyes and stepped in front of her to open the door.

When Jenna saw what Alaric was wearing a grin formed on her face as she began to laugh, "Oh. My. God."

"I figured that I'd better not overdress," Alaric said with a smirk. "That and it was laundry day."

Alaric was dressed in a pair of ratty, old, too big sweats and an old, oversized, faded shirt from his university, combined with the world's ugliest Christmas sweater unzipped on top. His hair was even mussed up as much as was possible with the short length that it was.

"Apparently I was wrong," Damon told Jenna as he tried to hold back his laughter. "I had it backwards when I said that you'd be fine as long as you wore anything but your laundry day clothes."

"Never take fashion advice from him," Alaric said with a smirk. "The guy showed up at a formal dance looking like that and he wears basically the same thing every day. And I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure that he's never heard of colours."

"Yeah, because you're such a nice dresser, Captain Bow Tie," Damon retorted with a grin.

"I looked like James Bond," Alaric responded with a laugh. "Don't mock the bow tie."

"You did not look like James Bond," Damon argued.

"Damon, you specifically called him James Bond while we were at the dance," Elena pointed out.

"Sarcastically," Damon added. "There's a difference between sarcastically calling someone James Bond and actually calling them James Bond."

"Not when it's coming from you," Elena responded. "Everything that you say comes out sounding at least a little bit sarcastic."  
Damon rolled his eyes at her.

"Are you seriously wearing that all night?" Jenna asked with a grin.

"Uh, yeah," Alaric said as if it were obvious. "I spent hours picking these out, couldn't you tell? These are my sexy date clothes."

"No wonder you're still single," Jenna said with a laugh as she grabbed her purse and headed out the door.

"Ouch," Alaric said with a giant smile. "This coming from the girl who thinks a McDonald's drive thru is a good date."

"Hey, it makes me an easy date," Jenna pointed out. "You'd think that would be selling point. And I mean if that isn't, you'd think being a human shield against serial killer cats certainly would be."

"What?" Alaric asked with a laugh.

"Don't worry, you heard right," Jenna told him, and then continued to tell him the story of how her last date had ended.


	13. Chapter 13

"So what do you want to do now?" Elena asked as she closed the door behind Jenna and Alaric.

"Well I was actually thinking that I'd play some more video games with Jeremy," Damon told her. "You've probably got some homework or something to work on right?"

Elena stood there, staring into Damon's far too serious facial expression, trying to decide if it was a joke or not. Just as she was about to ask, a smirk formed on Damon's face and he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"That wasn't funny," Elena said, but she laughed a little despite herself.

"I came to hang out with you, I don't care what we do," Damon said, kissing the top of her head.

* * *

Caroline could tell that there was something wrong the instant that her mother walked through the door. Liz Forbes was wearing the facial expression that she always wore when there was bad news that she didn't want to tell her daughter.

"It's Dad, isn't it?" Caroline asked with a frown. "Let me guess. He isn't going to be able to make it home this week, work needs him to stay a while longer for vague reasons that he can't even properly explain to us?"

"Caroline, it's more than that," Liz said, pausing to sit down across the table from her daughter. "He isn't just staying there for another week. He's moving there."

"What?" Caroline asked angrily. "Why? He can't just put off coming back for three months and then suddenly decide to move there and completely desert his family! I mean I know that you guys were fighting, but it wasn't anything serious enough to move halfway across the country over!"

"Apparently he found a new family," Liz said, unable to meet her daughter's eyes as she stared down at the kitchen table. "He's engaged to a new woman. Apparently he's moving in with her and her daughter."

"He can't just do that! He's still married to you; he can't just go find some other woman and get engaged to her and find a replacement daughter! That's not fair. You know what? This is your fault!" Caroline yelled at her mother.

"Caroline." Her mother said sternly, but Caroline was having none of that.

"You made this happen! If you hadn't worked so much, then he never would have gone on the business trip in the first place and you guys never would have started fighting! If you hadn't been such a crappy wife, he'd still be here!" Caroline continued. A part of her knew that what she was saying wasn't true and was just cruel, but there was a much larger part that just needed someone there to blame. Someone she could yell at.

"That isn't fair," Liz tried.

"None of this is fair! You ditch out on the family for work so I get to lose my dad too. In what world is that fair? You know what, I'm not hungry anymore. I'm going to my room." Caroline said before angrily storming out of the kitchen.

Liz figured that it was better to let Caroline go and have a chance to calm down instead of trying to deal with her in that mindset.

Caroline locked her bedroom door behind her, and then sat down on her bed feeling the tears begin to stream down her face.

She shouldn't have yelled at her mom like that, she knew that it wasn't her fault. Caroline knew that her mom was going through just as much as she was, but that didn't matter. Caroline couldn't handle being in the same room as her mother without lashing out.

As Caroline continued to sob, she knew that she needed to talk to someone about it. She got up from her bed and made her way across the room to grab her cell phone. She quickly dialled the number of the first person that she knew she could rely on.

* * *

"You still haven't told me how you calmed Jenna down," Elena pointed out. "And don't pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about again."

"I just used logic to beat out her crazy," Damon said with a shrug.

"Yeah, but logic never wins against Jenna's crazy," Elena commented. "Believe me; I've tried several times to use logic against it."

Before Damon had the chance to answer, Elena's cell phone began to ring loudly from where it was sitting on her desk.

Elena got up from her bed and headed over to see who was calling.

"It's just Caroline," Elena said as she hit ignore. "I doubt it's anything important. She was probably just calling for information on Jenna and Alaric or us."

Elena turned her phone off, and then set it back down on the desk.

* * *

Caroline heard the phone ring twice, and then cut off halfway through the third ring to go to Elena's voicemail. That meant that Elena wasn't just unavailable, she had hit ignore.

Caroline's sobs became louder as she dialled Bonnie's number. The phone didn't ring once; it just went straight to voicemail. Bonnie's phone was either dead or turned off.

Caroline was about to give up and curl up into a ball of misery by herself when she decided to try one last number.

The phone rang three times and just when Caroline was about to give up and hang up, the ring cut off.

"Caroline, are you okay?" Klaus asked, hearing her sobs through the phone.

"Not really," Caroline admitted. "God, I don't know why I even called you." She laughed a little through her tears. "You must think that I'm crazy calling you crying."

"No, I don't," He told her. "What happened?"

"My dad's been on a stupid business trip for months and he was supposed to come home Thursday night," Caroline began to explain. "But instead of just putting it off for another week like he's been doing, he finally admitted that he's not coming back. He's staying with his new family instead. Apparently he found a new fiancé and she even has a daughter to replace me… Who does that? Who just goes and finds a replacement family and breaks it to the old one over the phone. At least if he'd been man enough to tell it to my face instead of making my mom tell me, then I could have yelled at him. But instead I flipped out at my mom, now she probably hates me just as much as my dad does. And Elena's ignoring me. She and Bonnie are both too busy to even pick up their phones to deal with me... But I guess I can't really blame them when I'm acting like such a horrible person."

"You aren't a horrible person," Klaus told her. "And your parents don't hate you."

"Right, I forgot. My dad just likes his new daughter better," Caroline responded.

"Do you seriously think that he left because of you?" Klaus asked. "Not because of a bunch of other things put together? Or that if Bonnie and Elena knew what was going on that they wouldn't be there right now?"

"Maybe you're right; I'm probably just being typical Caroline. Taking everything personally and overreacting," Caroline told him.

"You aren't overreacting," Klaus told her. "I don't know exactly what you're going through… But when we moved, Rebekah and I came with our mother and our father stayed with Kol and Elijah."

Caroline had never heard either Mikaelson talk about their father before, and she'd never heard of Kol or Elijah before. She was just about to ask who they were when Klaus began to speak again.

"When we left our parents acted like we were going to visit during the holidays at the very least, but the last time that I saw either of my brothers was when I was thirteen. Kol was eleven and Elijah was fourteen. Now they're fifteen and eighteen and I still see them as kids when I think of them, which is ridiculous considering what I've heard come out of Kol's mouth over the phone." He stopped speaking to chuckle a little bit. "But we've barely talked, even over the phone, in the last four years."

* * *

When Jenna got back home at eleven, she was laughing loudly as she opened the door. Jeremy, who could hear it from where he was sitting in the living room, began to loudly imitate her laugh as the door opened.

"This is why Elena's my favourite!" Jenna called across the house to him.

"Your parenting skills are astounding," Alaric said with a laugh as he stood in the doorway.

"I know," Jenna said. "But hey, I got home before my curfew tonight instead of sneaking in late. At least one of them is still awake."

"Does Elena set your curfew?" Alaric asked.

"I'm not gonna lie," Jenna told him. "I was told that if I wasn't home before midnight that there would be dire consequences. Whatever that means…"

"I got you home an hour early, that must mean bonus points," Alaric commented.

"Probably," Jenna told him. "I'll be sure to mention it."

"When you recap everything five seconds after I leave?" Alaric asked.

"Maybe," Jenna said laughing a little embarrassedly.

"Then I guess I'd better give you something interesting to talk about to make sure that Elena doesn't get to sleep at a decent hour," Alaric said before leaning down to kiss her passionately. After he pulled away several long, intense seconds later, he added, "I'll know how good that was by how sleep deprived Elena is in class tomorrow."

Jenna laughed again loudly as he headed down the front steps.

* * *

When Jenna went upstairs, she found Elena sitting on her bed working on the end of her history homework that she had started after Damon had left.

Jenna, being the responsible parental figure that she was, ripped the booklet out of Elena's hand and threw it on the ground before saying, "This is more important than homework."

"Whatever. I'll just tell your date that's it's your fault that I didn't finish it," Elena responded.

"Perfect," Jenna said with a smile.

"You're in a good mood," Elena commented with a grin.

"I am," Jenna said with a nod. "Because I had a good date, Elena. No, an amazing date. Everything was so perfect. He was so perfect. And he's a really, really good kisser."

Elena ended up staying up with Jenna for over an hour longer going every single detail of the night, and then half an hour more after that to finish her homework because Elena couldn't stand the idea of going to class without her homework done; even if she could entirely blame it on Jenna and get away with it easily.

* * *

When Damon Salvatore woke up the next morning, his rib cage hurt a lot from how drunk and angry his dad had been when he had come home a couple of hours after Stefan when he was supposed to be with him. Unfortunately for Damon, Stefan was already upstairs so his dad was still able to hit him as he had clearly demonstrated.

When Damon went into the washroom he pulled his shirt up, wincing as the shirt moved along the sensitive area of skin. Once his shirt was pulled up high enough, he found a big, dark purple bruise the size of a baseball.

* * *

"What's with you?" Stefan asked his brother as they headed out to the car, Damon holding his arm across his torso and appearing to be in a fair bit of pain.

"My stomach just hurts," Damon responded, making sure not to avoid the question so that he could hopefully regain Stefan's trust. "I think I had too much breakfast or something."

* * *

As Caroline entered the school, she forced herself to put her happy face on and pretend like everything was perfectly fine. She walked straight past where Bonnie was digging through her locker; Caroline figured that if Bonnie wanted to talk to Caroline that she could go find her.

Caroline continued down the hall until she reached her locker. She quickly opened it, grabbed her binder, and then shut it once again to find Klaus stopped in front of his locker a few down from hers.

"Look, I'm really sorry that I was such a wreck on the phone last night," Caroline said as she walked over to him. "It's more than a little embarrassing."

"I'm glad that you called," Klaus said as he opened his locker.

"Why, you have a thing for crying girls?" Caroline asked with a slight laugh.

"Oh definitely," Klaus said sarcastically. "I'm that sick… No, I'm glad that you called instead of dealing with it alone."

* * *

Bonnie grabbed her textbook, then closed her locker's door and looked down the hallway to spot Caroline leaning against the locker next to Klaus's talking with him. Caroline laughed a little and then they were hugging.

Bonnie wondered what she'd missed as she watched.

* * *

"Thanks for listening to my crap either way," Caroline said as she pulled back from the hug after several seconds.

"Well I seem to remember you listening to my crap too," Klaus pointed out with a tilted smile.

* * *

After Klaus left, Caroline turned to head towards her chemistry class, only to spot Bonnie raising an eyebrow at her from across the hallway. Caroline couldn't handle lying to her friend, or talking about her dad at that point, so she just continued to walk to her class instead of stopping to greet her friend.

* * *

When Elena entered the classroom, the only acknowledgement that Caroline received was a nod. For the entire class, Elena remained silent trapped inside her own thoughts. Caroline figured that two could play at the silent game and remained equally quiet.

* * *

Damon didn't end up seeing Elena until lunch. By then his ribs had gotten a lot worse from walking around all day and being bumped into by people in the hallway. Yet as he walked into the cafeteria he made sure to keep his arm down and tried to make sure that he looked as normal and casual as possible for Stefan's sake.

He seemed to have fooled Stefan when he sat down, but Elena instantly noticed something off about his posture. She wasn't quite sure what it was, but he was definitely sitting strangely. Although Elena was curious, she didn't comment in front of the others.

"So how was Jenna's date last night?" Damon asked.

"Apparently it was amazing," Elena told him.

* * *

She didn't get a chance to talk to Damon alone at all during lunch, so Elena decided that she would rush as much as she could after gym class to meet him in the parking lot and attempt to get him away from Stefan because she was worried that there was something wrong.

* * *

As Elena walked to history class, she expected it to be awkward going back to Alaric's class after seeing him dressed like that the night before and hearing all about the date from Jenna. Yet she was surprised by how not awkward it really was. It just seemed like normal class until the end.

As she was packing up her binder, after almost everyone else had left, Alaric came over to talk to her.

"I heard that you were getting a whole recap about last night," He said with a slight smirk.

"Oh yeah," Elena responded. "Lasted almost as long as your date did. It's almost like I was third wheeling the whole time."

"Yeah, but you probably would have gotten at least one acknowledgement of your existence," Alaric joked. "So do you think that I passed?"

"Definitely," Elena responded. "She even came home happy instead of having a pity party for herself on my bed."

"And came home an hour early," Alaric pointed out with a smirk.

"She told me that she was supposed to make it clear so that you get bonus points," Elena said with a slight laugh.

"Did it work?" Alaric asked.

"Mmm," Elena said, trying to decide. "Yes."

"Good," Alaric responded with a smirk.

* * *

When gym class was over, Elena practically ran to her locker and then the parking lot. Damon showed up a few seconds after her, and Stefan wasn't there yet. Damon seemed to know this, since he clutched at his ribs once again while he still could without having Stefan question how 'too much breakfast' could possibly still be bothering him.

"What's wrong?" Elena instantly asked.

"It's nothing," Damon lied, but Elena instantly saw through it.

"Really?" Elena asked. "Then why are you holding your chest like that?"

Damon resisted the urge to instantly deflect and lie with a simple, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' But this was Elena, he could tell her even if it wasn't exactly pretty.

"My ribs hurt like a bitch," He told her. "They're pretty bruised thanks to my douche of a dad."

Elena wanted to see, but she figured asking in the middle of the parking lot while everyone was leaving the school probably wasn't the best timing. She knew that she wouldn't be able to see then, but she wanted to see it later.

Elena wanted to hug Damon better, but she knew that if she hugged him it would probably just hurt him more.

"I think that it's big, scary bodyguard time," Elena told him.

Damon laughed a little, which sent a sharp pain through his ribs that he didn't let show on his face. He wanted Elena to make him laugh even if it did hurt, it was better than nothing. Damon was going to pretend that it didn't hurt to laugh, or breathe, or move that badly even though Elena already knew about the injury.

"It's not really bodyguard time," Damon told her. "That wouldn't exactly make things better."

Elena looked at him seriously and said, "I don't want you to go back there just to get more injured. Obviously there's something wrong, what if he broke one of your ribs?"

"I have to go back," Damon told her. "And if I go now instead of a day or two from now it won't be as bad afterwards. Besides, I'm not leaving him alone with Stefan."

Before Elena had the chance to say anything else, Stefan arrived at the car.

Elena gave him one last concerned look, then gently kissed him on the lips and headed over towards her car where Jeremy was waiting.

* * *

When Damon got home, he instantly headed up the stairs with Stefan before his father could even have the chance to get him alone. He ended up going into his room, locking the door and then just lying on his bed and attempting to go to sleep despite the pain.

When he finally was about to fall asleep, Stefan began to knock on the door telling him that it was dinner time. Damon really wanted to yell back his refusal and just stay there and sleep all night, but that wasn't a real option. If he wanted things to go back to normal with Stefan, then he couldn't start screwing things up.

So instead of yelling, he called back in a calm voice, "Just a second."

Damon forced himself up off of the bed, trying his best to ignore the pain, then headed to the door and took one deep breath before opening it.

He headed downstairs next to Stefan, making sure not to grab at his ribs like he wanted to. Not only would it be a cause for concern and questions that couldn't be answered in Stefan, it would also be a sign of weakness and victory to his father.

* * *

Damon quickly ate his dinner as the trio sat in an awkward silence. Damon had absolutely nothing to say to his father and was waiting for Stefan to talk first, while Stefan was trying to decide if he really wanted to talk to Damon or not at that point, and their father just didn't care.

Stefan felt like he should probably say something to Damon, but he couldn't think of a single topic to bring up, so they continued to sit in silence other than the occasional sound of a fork against a plate.

* * *

After dinner, when the dishes had all been cleaned up, Damon headed straight back upstairs and went back to his bed. This time he was able to fall asleep within the first few minutes and managed to stay that way until Stefan woke him up the next morning.

* * *

Damon's ribs felt worse that morning, the bruising was just as bad too. Yet he still faked feeling perfectly fine until he was inside the school that morning away from Stefan. He decided to head over to Elena's locker and a tilted smile formed on his face when he saw that she was in fact there and alone.

"I told you that I'd be fine," He told her.

"You don't exactly look 'fine'," Elena responded, making sure that her voice was quiet enough that they wouldn't be overheard by anyone. "At least come over to my house after school today." She gave him a pleading look.

"Okay," Damon said, partially because he wanted to and partially because of that look on her face as she had said it.

* * *

At lunch, Damon pretended once again that nothing was wrong and managed to get a few small sentences out of Stefan.

As Elena sat in the cafeteria, her phone began to buzz in her pocket and she pulled it out and discovered that it was her aunt texting her.

* * *

**From Jenna:**

_Guess what I just did._

**From Elena:**

_What?_

**From Jenna:**

_That's not how guessing games work, Elena._

**From Elena:**

_Tell me or don't, I'm not guessing._

**From Jenna:**

_Fine, spoilsport. I just invited Alaric over for dinner tonight and he said yes._

**From Elena:**

_Does this mean that we're getting edible food tonight?_

**From Jenna:**

_No. The edible food is only for me and him. So you're okay with it?_

**From Elena:**

_Yeah. And even if I wasn't, it would be a little too late anyways when he's already coming over._

**From Jenna:**

_I could have cancelled. What about Jeremy, do you think he'll be alright with it?_

**From Elena:**

_I think so. And if not, he'll get over it. Damon's coming over tonight, too. Is that okay?_

**From Jenna:**

_Yeah. And even if it wasn't, it would be a little too late anyways when he's already coming over._

**From Elena:**

_Funny._

**From Jenna:**

_I thought so._


	14. Chapter 14

Elena didn't end up getting to see Damon's ribs until a while after they had been at Elena's house. For a long time, there had been either Jenna or Jeremy lurking in the general vicinity. Damon and Elena were both relieved to find that this time Jenna wasn't having the what-should-I-wear panic attack that she'd had for the date before.

Damon carefully slid his shirt up, trying to touch the sensitive skin with the fabric as little as possible.

Elena had not been prepared for what was right in front of her. She couldn't speak; all she could do was stare at the almost black, baseball sized bruise on one side of Damon's chest.

After several long moments of that, thoughts finally began to form in Elena's head again.

"You should ice it," Elena told him. She wasn't positive if that was right or not, but she figured that it probably couldn't make it any worse.

"Okay," Damon agreed surprisingly easily. He wasn't sure that it would really do anything, but it was an improvement over his complete lack of ideas, he just hoped that this would help at least a little.

"I'll be back in a second," Elena told him before heading downstairs to go grab an ice pack out of the freezer.

* * *

"What's that for?" Jenna asked her as Elena turned to leave the kitchen.

"I banged my leg on one of my drawers," Elena lied smoothly, then continued to walk.

* * *

When Alaric arrived, Jenna was almost done making dinner, so she asked him to go upstairs and get Elena and Damon.

Elena had left her room to go to the washroom, so when Alaric turned into the open doorway of the room that he had been told was Elena's, he found only Damon; who was lying on Elena's bed with his shirt pulled up and an ice pack on a bruise that was still just showing on his chest.

Damon looked up, surprised to find that the footsteps in the hallway had been Alaric's and not Elena's like he had expected. He lay perfectly still and stared like a deer in the headlights at his history teacher.

"You're not Elena," Damon finally said stupidly.

"No," Alaric agreed as he continued to stare at the bruise, his brain slowly beginning to piece things together.

Alaric knew that Damon had randomly shown up there before and slept over in Jeremy's room for seemingly no real reason. Add that with this giant ass bruise and the things that he'd overheard about Damon's weird behaviour at the school and he had figured it out.

As Damon watched Alaric's face and was beginning to see the confusion disappear and become replaced by realization he would have done anything to reverse it.

"Oh," Alaric finally said. "Your dad..?" He trailed off, not sure how to even word what he was trying to ask.

Damon knew that there was no way to deny it at that point, so he pulled the ice pack off and pulled his shirt down before saying, "Yeah."

"Does anyone else know?" Alaric asked.

"Just Elena," Damon responded. "Not even Stefan."

The look on his face said all that he couldn't and Alaric instantly understood that Damon didn't want him telling anyone. Alaric figured that his best chance of helping Damon or gaining his trust would be to agree to this.

"I won't tell anyone," Alaric simply said.

"Thanks," Damon muttered as he got up off of the bed ignoring the pain as he did so.

* * *

When Elena walked out of the washroom to find Alaric standing in the doorway, she hoped that Damon had heard and fixed his shirt before Alaric had reached the room. She walked over there and could instantly sense the awkwardness despite the fact that Damon's shirt was back on.

Her presence instantly ended the conversation even though she knew about it as well. Alaric didn't get the chance to tell Damon that he really should get his ribs looked at, but he figured that he'd get the chance later.

Elena stood as silent as the other two and just looked back and forth between them.

"Jenna sent me to get you guys for dinner," Alaric said after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence.

"Oh," Elena responded, the awkwardness not fading now that they were speaking.

"Yeah," Alaric said.

Damon was the one who finally broke the awkwardness by asking, "Then shouldn't we go down there?"

"Good idea," Alaric said.

That seemed to unfreeze them all as they headed towards the stairs. As soon as they reached the kitchen to find Jenna and Jeremy there was an instant sense of relief.

Elena still wanted to know what had happened before she had shown up in the room.

Before she even had the chance to ask, Damon leaned over and whispered into her ear, "He knows."

Elena couldn't tell if Damon's calm was a show for the rest of the people in the kitchen who didn't know what he had just told her, or if he was actually that calm about it. She'd have to figure that out after dinner.

* * *

Although dinner should have been pleasant with everyone getting along and joking, Elena couldn't quite get herself to fully enjoy it since it seemed to drag on and on when Elena was just hoping that it would end so that she could finally get answers.

She noticed that with the others there, things weren't awkward between Alaric and Damon at all as they joked. But was it all some stupid act to try to pretend that everything was more okay than it really was? Elena's head was beginning to hurt from overanalyzing it all.

* * *

When dinner was finally over, Elena volunteered herself and Damon to clean up.

"What do you mean he knows?" Elena whispered once they were alone.

"I mean that he knows," Damon responded. "Like walked in to find me icing the bruise and figured it out knows. He at least said that he wasn't going to tell anyone. And he's not the worst person that could have found out."

Elena could tell that Damon didn't like the idea of more people knowing about it, but he seemed to at least be trying to be okay with it.

* * *

When Damon finally went home that night, a while after dinner, his dad instantly threw a beer bottle across the room at him. It hit the wall just next to him and shattered on impact.

"Where the hell were you?" His father growled angrily.

Damon knew that he was in deep trouble as he ignored his father and attempted to reach the stairs before his father could reach him.

"I asked you a question," Guiseppe said, stepping in between Damon and his view of the stairs. "Where the hell have you been?"

"I was at a friend's house," Damon responded deciding that now was not a good time to bring up the fact that he had a girlfriend.

"Since when do you even have friends?" Guiseppe hissed at Damon, who could smell the strong scent of alcohol on his father's breath. Damon was pretty sure that it was stronger than usual.

Damon didn't answer.

"What, are you too stupid to answer a question on the first try?" Guiseppe asked, striking his son across the face with the back of his hand.

"No," Damon responded quietly.

"Really? Because it sure seems like it," Guiseppe said angrily. "You and that stupid brother of yours."

Damon, who had been staring at the floor in an attempt to avoid eye contact and hopefully get the beating over with quickly, looked up suddenly.

"What?" He asked. His voice and body language were suddenly much stronger now that it was Stefan who was being talked about.

"I thought that he was different," Guiseppe said. "Thought that I had at least one good kid, but I was wrong. He's just a little shit like you."

"I swear to god if you laid a hand on him!" Damon threatened angrily, getting into his father's face similarly to the way that he had threatened Tyler in the cafeteria. Damon didn't care less about his own injury at that point, he was too pissed off.

"What are you going to do?" Guiseppe asked. "Besides I wouldn't have had to if he would have answered my question and tell me where the hell you always run off to. I'm not an idiot I know that you two are that close. He knew and he made the mistake of not telling me."

"He didn't know and the only one who was making a mistake was you." Damon said through gritted teeth, all of the hurt and anger from the more than two months of crap that he had taken was all boiling up with his new rage over his dad doing the one thing that he had been trying to prevent that whole time.

Damon punched his father in the face as hard as he could, and then had to clutch at his ribs in pain.

Guiseppe, noticing that, kneed his son roughly in the rib cage.

"Don't you dare act like you're better than me," He warned before removing his knee.

"But I am," Damon said, not prepared to give up. "And Stefan is a hell of a lot better than me."

Damon felt a fist connect with his face hard. He was knocked to the ground, but began to laugh a little knowing that he was getting to his father.

Guiseppe kneed Damon in the face, and then headed out the front door angrily, probably off to some bar.

Damon lay on the floor for a few more minutes waiting for the pain to fade a little. When it didn't, he forced himself up off of the floor and wiped the blood that was coming from his nose with the sleeve of his jacket as he began to head towards the stairs.

* * *

After he had made it all of the way up the seemingly endless stairs, he headed over to Stefan's room to find the door closed.

He knocked on it, figuring that it was probably locked anyways and that Stefan would be less angry that way than if he just barged in.

There was no sound from the other side of the door.

"Stefan?" Damon asked.

A few seconds passed and Damon was about to give up and go back to his own room, when the door slowly opened revealing Stefan, who had a dark, swollen black eye as well as a dark bruise along his jaw line.

Damon stood there, staring at his brother's face in shock, freely clutching at his rib cage without having to worry about questions.

Stefan stood equally frozen as he stared at Damon's already bruising face and bloody nose. He noticed the way that Damon was clutching at his chest and knew that it hadn't just been too much breakfast the day before, but that there was something wrong with Damon's ribs.

"Well aren't we pretty looking?" Damon asked with a slight chuckle after a few long seconds.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Stefan asked, not seeming even slightly amused by his brother's joke.

"Because I knew that if I did you would try to do something stupid and this would end up happening," Damon said, gesturing towards his brother's face. "And it's not exactly the kind of thing that you want to tell people about or that you can just casually bring up."

"So the whole time that you've been acting weird..?" Stefan trailed off.

"Yeah," Damon responded. "It was because of him."

Stefan felt a sudden pang of guilt at the realization that the whole time he had been acting so selfish and been so mad at Damon for ignoring him while Damon had been going through all of that alone and been trying to protect him.

"So you've just been keeping it to yourself this whole time?" Stefan asked.

"Mostly," Damon answered. "Elena found out a while after she came back. And Alaric found out a couple of hours ago."

The brothers ended up talking for a long time and Damon told Stefan everything that he had been holding back for the last two months.

Stefan told Damon almost everything, but chose to leave out the part about liking Matt until he could be absolutely sure that Damon was back to normal.

* * *

When they went to bed, their dad was still out so they didn't have to deal with him again that night.

* * *

The next morning as the boys got ready for school, they noticed that Guiseppe was once again passed out in his chair.

"I'm pretty sure that people are going to ask about our faces," Stefan pointed out.

"Elena can cover it up when we get there," Damon told him. "Besides, if anyone asks then we just got into a fight with each other."

* * *

When Elena got out of her car and spotted Stefan and Damon leaning against their car waiting for her, she couldn't believe her eyes.

"What the hell happened to their faces?" Jeremy asked.

"I don't know," Elena said as she got out of the car, unable to rip her eyes away from their faces.

"Stefan knows now," Damon commented when Elena walked over. "But I'm guessing that you probably already figured that out by his face."

Elena nodded as she finally tore her gaze away from the boys' faces to look through her purse for her concealer.

"The amount of people that know doubled yesterday," Damon added as Elena continued to search through her purse, getting more and more frustrated when she couldn't find it.

"Obviously things are getting worse, Damon," Elena said, annoyed by how casually he was acting about all of this. "If they weren't then Stefan wouldn't have been included in it and your ribs wouldn't have been a problem so Alaric wouldn't have found out either."

"I know," Damon admitted.

"And I can't find my damn concealer," Elena said angrily.

"Then we'll just say that we got into a fight with each other when people ask," Damon told her.

Elena didn't like the idea, but she agreed since there wasn't really anything else that she could do at that point.

* * *

When it was lunch, Elena was surprised when both Stefan and Damon still showed up at the regular table.

"Whoa," Caroline instantly commented as they sat down. "What happened to you two?"

"We got into a fight," Damon responded simply, not wanting to go into any more fake details than was necessary.

"Well it looks like Stefan won," Matt pointed out.

"Yup," Damon responded in a rough tone, really not caring whether they thought that he was the tougher brother or not at that point.

Everyone stopped asking after that, Damon's tone had been warning enough.

* * *

Alaric was surprised when Stefan came into class with his black eye and dark bruise along his jaw line. He had thought that Damon had said that Stefan didn't know about it. Maybe had just been trying to cover for Stefan, but it hadn't seemed like it.

* * *

When Damon came in last class, Alaric was amazed by how much worse Damon looked than his brother. That was the boy who hadn't had a single mark on his face when Alaric had seen him the night before.

* * *

When the school day was finally over, Damon and Stefan both took their time getting to the car. Even when they got to the car, they hesitated outside of it. Neither of them wanted to go home, especially since their dad had probably regained consciousness by that point. They could tell that it was going to be a very long weekend.

"So," Damon finally spoke up. "We should probably leave at some point."

"Probably," Stefan agreed. Neither sounded very enthusiastic about the idea.

They stood outside of the car in silence for several more minutes as the rest of the parking lot emptied out. Each stood perfectly still, waiting for the other one to make the first move towards the car. Damon had always forced himself to leave right away because of Stefan; it was strange having neither wanting to push the other one. Damon knew that the longer that they waited before they went home, the worse that it would be when they got there, but he still couldn't make himself move to go home and deal with that crap and probably have his dad hit Stefan again. Only that time he would have to see it, which would make it so much worse.

They were still standing like that, watching the other and waiting for one to move, when Alaric walked out of the school. Alaric noticed them and wasn't sure if he should go over there or not, but the condition that they were in after just one night pushed him to go over there and endure the awkwardness if it meant possibly helping them instead of letting them leave for the weekend and having to worry the whole time about whether things were getting worse or not.

Damon noticed the teacher walking over first, and then Stefan noticed his brother's gaze and turned around to spot Alaric just a few steps away.

Alaric stopped in front of them and the three just stood there staring at each other for a few long, long seconds before Alaric finally convinced himself to speak up.

"Look, I feel awkward even coming over here, but I need to say this," Alaric stated. "And I don't know if you're going to pretend that this conversation never happened or not, but if things get bad and you guys have nowhere to go then you can call me to come get you no matter what time it is." He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and wrote down his cell phone number on it, then handed it to Damon.

Damon took the paper and stuck it in the pocket of his leather jacket, glad to have it. That meant that they would have somewhere to go other than trying to both sleep over at Elena's with no explanation, one on the couch and one on the floor. Damon didn't like going there every time anyways, and he definitely wouldn't just show up at Elena's in the middle of the night.

Alaric seemed a little surprised that Damon actually took it, but didn't comment as he silently walked away towards his own car.

The interaction with Alaric seemed to have done the trick to unfreeze the two teens as they moved to get into the car.

* * *

"What's with you?" Jeremy asked as he watched his sister stare down at her plate, pushing her food around with the fork, but not actually taking a single bite.

Elena didn't answer, too distracted by her worries to notice that she had been spoken to. She only looked up when she felt two sets of eyes on her.

"Huh?" She asked, looking between her aunt and twin trying to figure out why they were looking at her like that.

"I asked what's with you." Jeremy told her.

"Nothing," Elena said quickly.

"Clearly," Jenna said sarcastically.

"I'm just not that hungry," Elena lied.

Both Jeremy and Jenna knew that it wasn't true, that there was something on her mind distracting her. They didn't comment though, hoping that she would bring it up on her own later.

* * *

As the Salvatore brothers entered their house, Damon suddenly realized that there was no safe zone just because Stefan was around anymore.

Much to their relief, Guiseppe didn't turn his attention away from the TV when they entered the house. As they walked up the stairs they realized that they were safe at least for the time being.

They ended up both hanging out in Stefan's room, not doing much until their stomachs began to rumble. They knew that soon they were going to have to go downstairs and find something to eat, but they were both afraid that there father was still just as angry from the day before.

* * *

Eventually the hunger became enough that they decided to risk it and made their way downstairs to the kitchen. They hadn't crossed paths with Guiseppe yet.

The boys quickly grabbed some leftover takeout from the night before and stuck it in the microwave.

Their father walked into the kitchen and pushed passed them to get to the fridge to grab another drink as the microwave beeped loudly.

Damon grabbed the food out of the microwave as Stefan grabbed them each a plate out of the cupboards and a fork out of the cutlery drawer.

Their father pushed past them once again, fresh drink in hand, and headed back towards the living room without a word.

* * *

Both brothers were thrilled as they left the house the next morning for Stefan's football game. To Damon it seemed worse waiting for his dad to snap when he knew that it would happen than having it actually happen. He was sure that it probably wasn't true, but he couldn't stand tip toeing around the house any longer.

It was an away game so it was a fairly decent length drive.

"I bet you'll scare off the other team with your face," Damon commented, then smirked. "But you already did that before it was all bruised."

Stefan rolled his eyes and laughed a little.

Damon didn't think that he'd successfully made his brother laugh for months. He hardly recognized the sound, but he was glad to hear it.

* * *

When they arrived at the field, most of the team was already there, including Matt and Tyler. Damon ended up sitting in the stands by himself, not that he really cared. He was more than used to the whole alone thing.

Damon hadn't actually watched one of Stefan's games in a long time; he usually just slept on the bleachers when he had decided that going was better than being at home. That decision had actually been fairly rare since he hadn't wanted things to be normal between him Stefan anymore at the time. As he watched, he was reminded of how much he had used to enjoy the sport back when he had played it with Stefan when he was bored.

Damon's rib was starting to feel a bit better, but still bothering him. He figured that it probably wasn't broken if it was getting better though.

Damon smirked as he watched Tyler get tackled to the ground.

* * *

By the time that Damon and Stefan had gotten home from the game, their dad was already at some bar so they once again didn't have to worry about him for the rest of the night unless he came home while they were still up.

Damon ended up laying around for most of the rest of the day, hoping that the rest would make his ribs feel better. He pulled his shirt up to discover that the bruise was beginning to heal a little and wasn't quite as big as he remembered it being.

* * *

By the next morning, the bruise was healing even more much to Damon's relief. He texted Elena to tell her that it was starting to go away because he knew that she was more than a little concerned by it and ended up texting her for a few hours. He would have gone over to her house, but he didn't want to be gone hanging out with Elena when his dad finally snapped. It was bad enough that he had been over at her house instead of there to watch out for Stefan when he had been hit the first time.

* * *

By Monday morning both of the boy's faces were also beginning to heal, the bruises turning slightly yellowish. Damon's ribs still hurt, but he was able to walk around normally without having to clutch at them or wince with every step.

When Elena saw the brothers in the parking lot, she smiled widely.

"Your faces are getting so much better," She commented.

"I thought that my face was pretty great to begin with," Damon said with a tilted smirk.

Elena rolled her eyes at that, but laughed a little as she responded, "You know what I meant."

* * *

At lunch Elena was surprised when Caroline and Klaus walked into the cafeteria together. They were in different grades and she knew for a fact that they hadn't had the same class which meant that they had met at one of their lockers, or there was a small possibility that they had just happened to run into each other in the hallway, but Elena highly doubted that.

Elena suddenly realized that she had been so distracted by everything that was going on with Stefan and Damon and Jenna, that she had no idea what was going on with her other friend's. She had hardly talked to Bonnie and Caroline at all lately. For all she knew, Caroline and Klaus were already dating and she had been too distracted to even know. She decided then that she would try to make an effort to find out what she had missed out on and find out what was going on with them.

* * *

Alaric was relieved when he saw that both of the Salvatore boys were healing and didn't seem to have any new bruises. At least none on their faces.

* * *

When the day was over, Elena went straight to Caroline's locker.

"Shouldn't you be looking for Damon right now?" Caroline asked when she spotted Elena.

"Actually I came looking for you," Elena told her.

"Why?" Caroline asked, stopping what she was doing and turning to stare into Elena's eyes. "You've hardly said two words to me in the last week, why are you looking for me now? Do you need something from me?"

"No," Elena responded, furrowing her eyebrows. "I just came over here to try and catch up with you since we hadn't talked in so long."

"Really?" Caroline asked. "Because we talked more than this over the phone in a week when you were in Europe. But then you came back and you started getting Damon to come back to the group and act normal. And you know what, good for you. But then you decided to turn into him and just started pushing everyone who wasn't him away, little by little."

"I didn't know that was how you felt," Elena told her.

"I know," Caroline responded. "Because in order to have any idea of how I've felt you'd have to remember that I existed at the very least, even if it didn't require talking to me to figure it out."

With that, Caroline closed the door of her locker, locked the lock, and left a shocked and confused Elena standing there unsure of what to do.

Caroline was already halfway down the hallway when Elena came back to her senses and began to chase after her upset friend.

"Caroline," She called as she got close to her blonde friend.

Caroline stopped in the middle of the hallway and turned around to look at her.

"What?" Caroline asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Look, I want to fix this," Elena told her. "If you're mad because I wasn't paying enough attention to you, then why are you running away as soon as I start talking to you?"

"Because you only came to find me because you didn't have anyone better," Caroline responded.

"Because I'm just the backup to everyone else. I'm sick of it. Why don't you go fix things with Bonnie first? We both know that I'm her backup too."

"Caroline," Elena said, not understanding why her friend would think something like that. "You aren't the backup. Why don't we go do something tonight? Just you and me."

"What, no one else is available?" Caroline asked. "Maybe I already have plans, Elena. You aren't the only one who has plans."

"Well then how about tomorrow?" Elena tried.

"I don't actually have plans!" Caroline argued. "Because in order to have plans you have to have people like you. That's not the point. I don't want to just get one night scheduled in and then pretend that everything's okay the rest of the time just because I got two seconds of attention. I'm not a dog, Elena. I'm a human and you're going to have to do a little better than that."

Elena watched as Caroline huffed away once again, this time she didn't go after the other girl, knowing that there was absolutely no point and nothing that she could say.

* * *

Caroline was beyond frustrated and she could feel the tears fighting to get out of her eyes. She kept her head down and walked as fast as she could, hoping to get to her car before she started crying in the middle of the school.

She was almost at the door to outside, when she walked straight into someone who she hadn't seen coming from the connecting hallway. She looked up feeling a few traitorous tears streaking down her cheeks. It was Klaus that she had run into and he was looking down at her concernedly.

"Are you okay, love?" Klaus asked her.

Part of the reason that Caroline was beginning to warm up to him so much was that he was the only person whose first choice she was. When she was around him she felt like she was actually wanted, which she had really needed lately since she had basically lost one of her best friends at the same time as she had lost her dad.

"Perfect," Caroline said as she wiped the tears away with the sleeve of her shirt. "The happiest I've ever been in my life."

"You don't look like it," Klaus commented with a light chuckle.

* * *

When Elena spotted Bonnie walk past her, she instantly began to chase after the other girl.

"Hi," Bonnie said after Elena had caught up, seeming surprised that Elena was there.

"Am I a bad person?" Elena asked.

"What?" Bonnie asked. "How would you of all people be a bad person?"

"Because I've been completely ignoring you guys lately," Elena responded. "And now Caroline hates me."

"You've been distracted with your new boyfriend," Bonnie pointed out. "And it's not like we've exactly been talking to you lately either. Caroline just takes everything personally, she'll get over it."

"You think?" Elena asked.

"Definitely, she just has to have her dramatic little temper tantrum first," Bonnie responded.

"So you aren't mad at me?" Elena asked.

"No," Bonnie said. "I missed you, but I'm not mad."

"Do you want to go get something to eat?" Elena asked.

"Sure," Bonnie said. "Do you want to meet at the Grill?"

"Yeah, I just have to drop Jer off first," Elena answered.

* * *

Damon and Stefan were once again dreading going home, knowing that at some point their dad would snap.

They stood there for a few long minutes before Damon suddenly opened his car door and said, "Screw going home. We'll go later. I want to do something fun first."

He knew that their dad would probably be pissed and start asking where they had been, but Damon was willing to take the hits for both of them if it meant getting to have some fun and a little brotherly bonding time first.

Stefan's lip twitched up into a smile as he got into the passenger seat, and Damon took this as agreement and began to drive in the opposite direction of their house.

* * *

Caroline and Klaus had been sitting in the Mystic Grill, where most of the teens in Mystic Falls went to hang out, for about five minutes before Damon and Stefan walked in.

 _Of course_ , Caroline thought to herself, but didn't say it. Instead she just turned her attention back to Klaus and attempted to forget the fact that the Salvatores were even there.

"If I were Elena, I definitely would not have ignored you," He told her. "I don't know what she was thinking."

Caroline smiled a little, and then said, "But if you were Elena, then I doubt that you would even go out with Damon Salvatore in the first place."

"You're right, I'm more of a Stefan man myself," Klaus told her.

Caroline began to laugh, feeling a lot better.

* * *

When Elena and Bonnie entered the Mystic Grill, they instantly noticed Caroline and Klaus sitting in a booth together, and Damon and Stefan laughing together as they played pool.

"Great," Elena muttered. "This ought to make Caroline hate me less that I showed up with you and that Damon is already here."

"It's not like you knew that she was going to be here or that Damon would," Bonnie pointed out as they sat down at a table a good distance away from Caroline's booth and the billiards table.

"Yeah, but Caroline will assume that I decided to hang out with everyone else and not her just to spite her because she's the backup to everyone else," Elena pointed out. "Even though I specifically asked her to do something tonight before I asked anyone else and she refused."

"So I'm the backup?" Bonnie said in mock hurt as a grin spread across her face.

* * *

Damon took a shot and just narrowly missed getting the six ball in, then looked up and noticed Elena and Bonnie sitting at a table across the restaurant. She was looking back, so he shot her a tilted smile and a wave as Stefan took his turn, getting the nine in easily.

Elena smiled back at him, before turning back to Bonnie.

* * *

"I don't know why I defended them against your sister," Caroline stated as she watched Damon and Elena's coupliness even from across the entire restaurant. "Rebekah was right, they are majorly gag-worthy."

"I don't think so," Klaus said, surprising Caroline by giving his honest opinion instead of just agreeing with her. "Just because you're upset with Elena for spending time with him instead of you always, doesn't mean that you think they're any less cute together. The cute factor is just pissing you off more now."

"Well does she have to look so goddamn happy after we just got into a fight?" Caroline asked. "I'm a mess and her mind's on Damon for a change. And Bonnie. Because she just had to show up to hang out with them."

"Well didn't she ask you first?" Klaus asked, confused by Caroline's logic. "That doesn't really make it seem like you're the backup."

"Well yeah," Caroline admitted, Elena had asked if Caroline wanted to do something the two of them so she must have been trying to do that before she had shown up with Bonnie. "But I still was that easy to replace. Just bring Bonnie instead and it's like we never even got into a fight in the first place."

"Well I don't know her as well as you do," Klaus commented. "But Elena doesn't really seem like the kind of girl who pretends that the fight never happened. She's probably over there trying to figure out what to say to you."

"Now that she finally decided that she wants to talk to me," Caroline said, desperately trying to cling onto a reason to remain mad at Elena, no matter how childish it was.

"At least she's making the effort now," Klaus responded. "It sucks that you had to point it out to her before she even realized that there was anything wrong and decided to try and fix it. But at the same time, at least she is trying to fix it instead of ignoring the problem and acting like you're a giant drama queen for thinking that there is one."

"Why do you always have to be right?" Caroline asked.

"Because I'm a genius," Klaus responded. "That and I live with the world's biggest drama queen so I'm very well educated in the ways of teenage girl drama."

* * *

"You cheated," Damon complained.

"No, you just don't want to admit that you've completely lost all skill that you used to have," Stefan said with a smirk.

"As if you won when I hardly even had two in. I demand a rematch."

"Why? Because you can't handle the fact that I beat you once?" Stefan asked with his smirk still in place.

"Yeah, you keep that look on your face," Damon said. "I mean if that one win really makes you feel that good about yourself, then good for you."

"You're not going to make me feel bad about being happy that I won," Stefan told his brother. "No matter how hard you try."

"Even if I beat you six times in a row now?" Damon asked.

"I'd like to see you try," Stefan responded.

"You will," Damon said. "And you'll see me succeed and then I'll see you cry like a little girl after losing."

"Or, you'll lose again and run away refusing to play anymore," Stefan responded.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Stefan had already defeated Damon once again and by just as wide of a margin.

Damon had lost all of his skill when he had stopped playing entirely for two months while Stefan had still continued to play with Matt or Jeremy sometimes.

"So do you dare get beat again or are you going to go sulk somewhere?" Stefan asked him.

"I think that I'm done for the day," Damon answered. "Any more losses and I can't pretend that it was a total fluke."

"And you can convince yourself of that now?" Stefan asked as they put their cues away.

"Shut up," Damon said as he began to head over to Elena and Bonnie's table with Stefan following shortly behind.

Damon sat down next to Elena and grabbed a fry off her plate, then popped it into his mouth. Stefan sat across from him, next to Bonnie. There was still an open seat on the other side of each of the brothers.

"So what's with them?" Damon asked, gesturing towards Caroline and Klaus who had been sitting at a booth together since before they had arrived there. "Are they like together now, or..?"

Elena had no idea, so she turned to Bonnie.

"They aren't," Bonnie pointed out. "Unless they got together since lunch time today."

"It looks like a possibility," Elena commented, before sticking another fry into her mouth.

"I don't know," Bonnie responded. "There's always the possibility that she's just using him because he gives her attention and she's mad at you."

"She's mad at you?" Damon asked, turning to look at his girlfriend in confusion.

"Yeah," Elena responded. "She's annoyed because I spend too much time with you and not enough time with her. So she's kind of mad at you too, but not as much as she is at me."

"So does that mean that she's kind of mad at Alaric too?" Damon asked.

Elena rolled her eyes, "I doubt it. I don't even think that she knows how the Jenna and Alaric set up even went because I've been a complete jerk ignoring her."

"No," Stefan pointed out. "Damon was a complete jerk ignoring me, you were just distracted."

"He has a point," Damon agreed, much to Bonnie's surprise.

* * *

"I think that if she was just trying to think of something to say to me that she would come over here at some point and said something," Caroline pointed out as she watched the group of four at the farthest away table. "Instead she's just sitting there with all of the people that she actually likes."

"Then why don't you go over there and talk to her?" Klaus asked.

"Because I'm mad at her for barely talking to me all week," Caroline responded.

"Did you even try to talk to her at all?" Klaus asked. "Or have you just been ignoring her the whole time while she was ignoring you?"

Caroline sat there in a stunned silence. She hadn't realized that she had put such little effort into getting Elena's attention; she had just immediately snubbed her.

"Well what am I supposed to say if I go over there?" Caroline asked.

"Does it really matter?" Klaus asked. "She'll probably just be glad that you aren't mad at her anymore."

Caroline debated it for a few seconds, and then moved to get up.

"Aren't you coming?" She asked when she noticed that Klaus hadn't moved from his seat.

"I just figured that I was the backup to vent to, but now that you're going back to the people that you actually like you wouldn't want me around anymore," Klaus responded with a smirk as he got up.

"Cute," Caroline said sarcastically.

"Caroline Forbes just called me cute," Klaus said with a smirk.

"Shut up," Caroline said with a laugh as she playfully hit him in the chest.

They headed over to the other table before Caroline could decide to wimp out and change her mind.

* * *

When Elena noticed that Caroline and Klaus appeared to be walking over, or maybe just walking out past their table, she instantly went silent. The others followed her gaze and also went quiet once they saw the other two headed over there.

When Caroline stopped right in front of their table, they looked up at her expectantly, waiting for her to say something.

Caroline's mind went blank and she wanted to turn around and run away. They were all waiting for her to speak, but she had no idea what to say and if she didn't say something soon then she was going to look like a complete idiot.

Klaus seemed to notice her hesitation and spoke up for her, "Is there room for two more?"

"Sure," Elena responded, knowing that everyone was waiting for her to answer since she was the one that was involved in the fight.

Klaus sat down next to Damon and Caroline hesitated for a half second before she followed suit and sat down across from him and next to Stefan.

There was an awkward silence since both tables had been talking about the people at the other one before they had merged so they couldn't pick up the conversation where they had left off. As the silence bore on, Caroline began to feel that she wasn't really welcome there and was debating whether she should try to say something to make up or whether she should just get up and leave when the silence was finally broken.

"So I never did hear how Jenna's date with Alaric went," Bonnie said to Elena, remembering the last conversation that they'd had before Caroline had come over that hadn't been revolving entirely around her.

"Neither did I," Caroline spoke up, glad that Bonnie hadn't heard it either. At least Elena hadn't just been ignoring her.

"Jenna's two dates with Alaric," Damon corrected.

"You should have seen how he showed up for the first one," Elena said with a laugh, then began to tell the story glad that they were able to function as a group once again with the awkwardness seeming to have disappeared entirely. Even Klaus was making jokes and being included in the conversation as much as the others.

* * *

A few hours later the group finally decided that they'd better get home since many of them had homework to do.

As Caroline watched Damon kiss Elena goodbye before he left, she knew that Klaus had been right. She couldn't help herself from smiling; they were too damn cute even if Caroline didn't want to admit it sometimes.

Caroline hugged Klaus goodbye before he left and Klaus left with a big smirk on his face.

* * *

When Stefan and Damon walked into their house, their dad was nowhere to be found. That was until they reached the stairs, which he had been sitting at the bottom of waiting for them.

"Which one of you wants to tell me why I am never allowed to know where my own sons are?" He snarled, looking back and forth between the two teenagers.

"Maybe because you're a horrible father," Damon muttered. He normally would have never had the guts to say that despite its truth, but he had gained the courage since he knew that he had to keep as much of the focus off of Stefan as possible.

"Or maybe it's because you're a horrible kid and you brainwashed your brother into being just like you," Guiseppe responded. "Do you think that I'm a horrible father, Stefan?"

Stefan hadn't yet learned how bad of an idea it was to talk back, and despite his fear he wasn't going to let his brother take all of the heat for him like he had been for months.

"Yes," Stefan responded. "Do you really think that you're a good father? Because you won't be winning any father of the year awards any time soon. They'd have to kill off most of the dad's in the world before you'd even have the slightest chance of winning."

 _Dammit Stefan_ , Damon thought to himself. He couldn't just shut his mouth and let Damon take all the hits, including the extra ones that he was adding with his back talk. Instead Stefan had to make sure that they would both get hit extra amounts and that there would be nothing that Damon could do about it. He was still going to try to make himself get all of the beating anyways, so he stepped in front of Stefan as their father got up from where he was sitting on top of the stairs.

"Move," Guiseppe ordered.

Damon stood still.

"I said move!" Their father yelled.

A slight smirk formed on Damon's face as he took one step closer to his father, still blocking him from reaching Stefan.

"Better?" He asked arrogantly.

Before Damon knew what had happened, he was on the floor and the side of his face was burning. As he rolled to get up, he saw his father punch Stefan in the gut hard enough to send him stumbling back a few feet.

"Leave him alone," Damon said, stepping in between once again.

"Why don't you mind your own business?" Guiseppe asked. "And stay out of the way, clearly he needs a lesson a lot more than you do right now."

Damon stood his ground and sternly repeated, "Leave. Him. Alone."

Guiseppe's stepped forward and tried to push Damon aside, but Damon resisted with all of the strength and adrenaline he had. Guiseppe frowned when his son didn't budge even half an inch. He decided to take a different strategy and punched Damon in the gut, which normally sent him falling to the ground.

Damon began to fall forward, but caught himself immediately. He clutched at his stomach, but didn't move. Instead he looked up and held threatening eye contact with his father.

Stefan just sat on the floor and watched, flinching each time that Damon was hit, but unable to make himself get up or do anything. He couldn't think of any possible solution that would make the situation any better.

Guiseppe hit Damon in the chest with all of his strength, causing Damon to take a half step backwards, but he didn't so much as flinch as he held eye contact.

"If you don't move, then you two can sleep outside tonight," Guiseppe snarled at him.

"Fine," Damon said, taking a step forward so that his face was just inches away from his father's. "It's better than sleeping in the same house as you. Stefan, we're going." Stefan stood up from the ground seeming confused. "Go start the car."

He grabbed his keys out of his pocket and threw them over his shoulder. Stefan caught them and began to hesitantly walk towards the door. Once Damon heard the door close behind his brother he backed away two steps, and then turned around to face the door as he headed towards it.

"If you two dare come back here again," Guiseppe threatened. "You'll wish that you had just let me hit him. You'll wish that you could go back to the way things were before you became the smartass who thought that he was tougher than me."

Damon ignored the words as he headed out the front door without so much as a glance back. He got into the driver's seat of the car and backed out of the driveway.

* * *

Once they were a few streets away, Damon pulled over and grabbed his phone out of his jeans pocket and the slip of paper that Alaric had given him the other day out of his jacket.

The only thing that had been keeping him in that hellhole of a house had been Stefan. He hadn't wanted to leave Stefan there alone or tell him why they had to leave. The one other contributor had been that he hadn't had anywhere to go. But now Damon didn't have to try to hide it from Stefan anymore and he couldn't protect him well enough while living in that house. He figured that it would be well worth the possible awkwardness to call Alaric, who was actually a really nice guy, and stay over there at least for one night, than to stay at their own house for any longer.

He quickly dialed the number, then hit talk and listened to the ringing.

Alaric picked up after the third ring, "Hello?"

"It's Damon, is that offer still good?"


	15. Chapter 15

A few minutes later, Damon was parked in his teacher's driveway. Once they were actually there it wasn't as easy as he had been expecting. Still, they had to go somewhere, so Damon slowly got out of the car causing Stefan to do the same.

* * *

Damon was amazed by how easy it was staying at Alaric's. He hadn't asked them any questions about what had happened, figuring that if they wanted to talk about it that they would bring it up on their own.

Alaric had one spare bedroom that Damon told Stefan to take while he slept on the couch. It was already getting late; still a little early to go to bed on a normal day, but both of the boys were exhausted both emotionally and physically so they decided to go to bed early.

Alaric went to his bedroom and marked a few assignments before he turned in early himself. All three of the men lay awake for over an hour wondering what they were going to do about Damon and Stefan's father before they were able to fall asleep.

* * *

When Alaric woke the two boys up the next morning to eat something before they left for school, both of the brothers noticed how weird it was having an adult there to wake them up and make them breakfast. They had both become used to fending for themselves in the morning a long time ago and had become used to it being just them as their father lay passed out in his chair.

Conversation was minimal as they ate their breakfast of pancakes, but as they were just finishing, Alaric broke the silence when he asked, "So are you guys going back tonight or do you want to come here again?"

Damon was a little surprised by the offer even though he had been hoping for it.

"Our dad said that if we left to never come back," Damon responded. "So here I guess."

* * *

When Damon got to school he chose not to tell Elena about the events of the night before since he knew that she had already been concerned enough and that she would just be upset with him for getting himself hit more. He didn't regret it though; he was glad that he had stood up to his father to protect Stefan, even if it meant leaving their house and most of their stuff behind.

* * *

At lunch, Damon met Elena at her locker and as he was walking her to the cafeteria, she asked, "So how are things at your house since Stefan... found out..."

Deciding not to tell her was one thing, but lying to her face was a completely different one.

"Last night he kicked us out," Damon said quietly, but didn't go into any further details. "We're staying at Alaric's, at least for now."

Elena seemed surprised by that news, especially since she hadn't heard about Alaric giving them his number.

"You're telling me what happened later," Elena told him as they stepped through the doorway that led to the cafeteria.

"I know," Damon responded as they headed towards their regular table.

Luckily Damon and Stefan both already wore practically identical outfits every day so no one noticed that they were wearing the exact same clothes as they had been the day before.

* * *

When the school day ended, they both agreed that the next morning they would go grab some of their clothes from their house while their dad would still be passed out in his chair.

Elena convinced both of them to come over to her house and stay for dinner. After dinner they left and headed over to Alaric's house.

* * *

Damon was shocked when they weren't instantly interrogated on where they had been.

Instead Alaric just smiled at them and asked, "Did you guys eat anything yet?"

Damon found it strange how his own father had never once asked him that or even cared whether he ate or not. Since their mom had walked out, Damon and Stefan had fended for themselves for everything up to and including their meals.

"Yeah, we ate at Elena's house," Damon answered.

Alaric had also eaten, but if they had said that they hadn't eaten, he had leftovers that they could have. He offered them up anyways for in case they got hungry later or had been lying about having eaten.

Damon and Stefan both had homework for multiple classes so they sat down on the couch, also known as Damon's bed, and began to work on it.

Alaric smiled a little as they began to work. He didn't understand what was wrong with their father that could possibly make him hit either of the boys sitting on his couch. They were good kids and Alaric couldn't understand why any parent would ever hit their kid no matter how much of a monster they were being.

As the boys worked on their homework, Alaric worked on marking the stack of assignments that he had left in his pile. Quite a while later when he was finished marking and Stefan had already finished his homework, Damon was still working on his homework.

"Do you seriously have that much homework?" Alaric asked.

"Yeah, I finished all of the rest of it a long time ago, but my dick of a history teacher gave me a huge ass booklet to do," Damon responded, his lip twitching up into a smirk as he continued to stare down at his homework.

A grin formed on Alaric's face as he began to laugh.

Damon and Stefan both already felt more comfortable in Alaric's house after one day than they had been in their own house since their mom had left when Damon was twelve.

Damon actually ended up finishing within the next five minutes so Alaric didn't have to feel too bad about the amount of homework that he'd given.

* * *

Once they were all finished their work, they ended up watching some crappy made for TV movie before going to bed.

That night each of them fell asleep a lot easier.

* * *

Damon and Stefan were once again surprised when Alaric woke them up the next morning with breakfast already made. It was definitely something that they could get used to easily.

Damon was in a very good mood as they drove to school after successfully picking their clothes up. He knew that they probably couldn't stay with Alaric forever, and that eventually Alaric wouldn't want them around, and that even if that didn't happen that they would eventually have to do something to explain why they had suddenly moved in with their teacher; especially if Jenna found out. Damon just couldn't seem to make himself care at that point; he was too busy enjoying having a positive adult in his life and pretending that things could stay that way and that Alaric wouldn't get sick of them any time soon.

* * *

That night Stefan had football practice. Luckily they had picked his football stuff that morning.

During their scrimmage, Stefan wasn't playing his best since he was still sore from the beating that his father had given him two nights before.

Tyler had clearly noticed that Stefan's game was off and he immediately decided to take advantage of it. He even made sure to tackle Stefan harder than he usually would.

Stefan had thought that he could handle it until Tyler tackled him mid-air and elbowed him in the face to send him to the ground.

"What's the matter, Salvatore?" Tyler asked sarcastically. "Can't take a hit?"

"What the hell man?" Matt demanded as he walked over.

Tyler just rolled his eyes at Matt and walked away.

"You alright?" Matt asked as he put his hand out to help Stefan up.

"Yeah, I'm good," Stefan said, taking the help from his friend.

"Are you sure?" Matt asked. "Your lip's bleeding."

Stefan reached his hand up to wipe the blood off of his lip.

A slight smirk formed on his face as he said, "I think I'll survive."

"Great, then can we get back to playing?" Tyler asked in a tone that conveyed just how unconcerned he had been.

"You know you're a real asshole sometimes, Ty," Matt said as they began to walk back to their positions.

* * *

After practice Stefan and Matt were the last ones to leave the locker room.

"Hey are you okay man?" Matt asked as they walked out together.

"It's a split lip, not a tumour," Stefan said with a smirk, stopping to turn and look at his friend.

"No, I don't mean that," Matt said, meeting Stefan's eyes with his own concerned ones. "You just seemed distracted or something tonight. And I don't know, I guess I just thought that maybe something was wrong."

Stefan knew that he should stop staring into those eyes, but he couldn't make himself.

"It's nothing," Stefan said, his eyes still locked on Matt's blue orbs.

"Well if you need someone to talk to-" Matt didn't get the chance to finish the sentence.

 _Stefan, stop. What the hell are you doing?_  Stefan thought to himself and yet he couldn't make himself remove his lips from Matt's.

At first Matt had remained perfectly still from shock, but then he had begun to kiss back out of reflex.

_Stefan, stop! Anyone could walk in. Damon's waiting in the parking lot, you have to go. The longer that you let this go on for, the more awkward it will be afterwards. For god's sake, if you don't want to lose your friendship with Matt, then just get the hell off of him!_

Stefan finally managed to force himself to pull away. Both men stared at each other with 'Oh shit, what just happened?' facial expressions.

"I have to go," Matt said, finally breaking the silence after they had stared at each other confused for several long seconds.

"Yeah, I'd better go before Damon kills me," Stefan said, finally breaking out of his trance.

He turned to walk towards the parking lot without so much as another glance. The whole way to the car Stefan's mind was screaming at him for what he had done.

* * *

"What took you so long? Did you have to spend twenty minutes fixing your hair after practice?" Damon asked with a smirk when Stefan got in the car. The smirk fell when he saw Stefan's split lip and grim facial expression. "What happened?"

"There's something that I have to tell you," Stefan said as Damon began to drive. "And I need to know that you're really going to stay normal and not flip the switch back again before I do."

Damon could hear the nervousness in his brother's voice.

"Yeah, I'm staying like this," Damon said seriously. "What is it?"

"Okay," Stefan said. "I'm not… I don't…" Stefan paused for a second to try and decide how to word it. "Look, I like Matt. Not just in a friend kind of way. And after practice today we were the last two to leave. We were talking and then I don't even know how it happened, but suddenly I was kissing him. And afterwards we both just stood there staring at each other for a few seconds before we made up excuses to leave and it was the most awkward thing ever." Once Stefan had gotten the first sentence out, the words had just come pouring out.

"And you were afraid to tell me why?" Damon asked.

"So you're okay with it?" Stefan asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Damon asked.

"God, things are going to be so awkward tomorrow," Stefan muttered half to himself.

"He says anything bad and he'll have to deal with me," Damon told his brother.

"I can handle myself," Stefan said, although he had to smile at Damon's protectiveness. "Besides, I doubt that he'll be saying anything to me."

"He'll get over it," Damon told his brother.

"You say that like I borrowed a book and lost it, not like I completely ruined everything," Stefan responded.

"You didn't ruin everything," Damon argued. "You just made things… temporarily awkward. I showed up at Elena's house crying when she practically hated me. That was awkward, but she got over it."

They had reached Alaric's house and got out of the car. Damon could see the skepticism on his brother's face even if Stefan wasn't arguing with him.

"You're going to be fine," Damon said seriously before walking towards his little brother and putting his arms up to pull him into a man hug. "And if anyone tries to change that they'll have to deal with me."

The corner of Stefan's mouth twitched up into a smile as Damon patted him on the back before pulling away.

* * *

The next morning when Alaric woke Stefan up, Stefan just groaned and rolled over.

Stefan had almost fallen back asleep when an annoyingly chipper Damon walked into the room, turned the light on, and ripped the covers off of him.

"You're supposed to be the one trying to force me to get out of bed," Damon said. "… or couch."

Stefan threw his pillow at his brother's face, "Go away."

"You could stay here in a cocoon of self-pity," Damon said as he sat down on the other side of the bed, his head resting against the headboard. "But from my experience, that only makes things worse. If you avoid seeing him now then it's just going to be more awkward when you can't avoid him anymore. Besides, putting it off isn't really easier. Then you'll just sit around constantly dreading the moment when you do have to talk to him, trying to think every single possibility for what could happen until you drive yourself completely insane."

"Fine," Stefan said, forcing himself to get out of the bed. As much as he hated to admit it, Damon was right.

"I bet it won't even be that bad," Damon told him.

* * *

Stefan managed to make it to his first class without having to see Matt in the hallways.

At some point during first class Stefan started noticing people in his class whispering and staring at him, but he figured that it was just paranoia.

* * *

It wasn't until he was walking to his second class that Stefan realized that it wasn't just paranoia.

"Did you hear that he kissed Matt Donovan?" One girl asked her friend once she thought that Stefan was out of earshot.

Stefan just kept walking, pretending that he hadn't heard and forcing himself to keep a face of stone despite the tidal wave of emotions that he was feeling.

As he continued to walk, he saw people glancing down at their phones and then looking up to him and whispering to their friends. The whole school probably knew. And if they didn't, then they would by lunchtime.

* * *

Stefan somehow managed to make it through his second class, which seemed to drag out for an eternity, and then it was lunch.

Stefan knew that Damon was right, that hiding would only make it worse. He just didn't know if he could make himself walk into the cafeteria, where Matt would be and everyone would be staring, alone.

Luckily he didn't have to since Damon was leaning against his locker when he reached it.

"Are you alright?" Damon asked.

Even though Damon knew that it would have only been worse for Stefan if he hadn't shown up to school, Damon still felt bad for convincing him to go just so that he could face all of the stares.

"I don't even know anymore," Stefan said as he unlocked his locker. "God this has been a weird week."

"Yeah, it's been pretty shitty," Damon agreed.

"At least it hasn't all been bad," Stefan said, his eyes flickering to Damon to make sure that the unspoken 'at least I got you back' had been understood.

"We don't have to go to the caf if you don't want to," Damon offered as Stefan closed his locker. "One day won't make that big of a difference."

"No, you were right," Stefan said, shocking himself a little. "If I don't go then it'll just make it worse."

"Are you sure?" Damon asked.

"Not at all," Stefan admitted. "But let's go anyways."

* * *

When they entered the cafeteria, it instantly became almost silent as kids turned around in their chairs to stare. Some gazes were sympathetic, some were amused, and a few just looked down-right disgusted.

Stefan gave Damon a 'here we go' look before they continued to walk towards their regular table.

Matt wasn't there yet, but it was still awkward when they reached the table. Everyone sat in an awkward silence giving Stefan pitying looks as Damon sat down next to Elena and Stefan sat down on his other side.

Tyler was the one exception as he gave Stefan a cat-like smirk and said, "If I were you I wouldn't be showing my face in here."

Damon gritted his teeth and was two seconds from beating the crap out of Tyler when something stopped him.

Matt stormed into the cafeteria and even from across the room it was clear that he was fuming.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Ty?!" Matt yelled across the cafeteria, unable to control his anger for long enough to walk to the table.

"You're mad at  _me_?" Tyler asked in an amused tone. "Why, for looking out for you?"

"That's bullshit and you know it," Matt shouted. "God, why did I even tell you? I should have known that you were too much of a jackass to listen when I said not to tell anyone."

"How is this my fault?" Tyler asked.

"Because you're the one who told everybody!" Matt yelled. "Are you honestly too stupid to even realize why I'm mad at you? I don't even know why I'm friends with you anymore."

"Yeah. Well, the feeling's mutual," Tyler told him.

"Then why don't you just leave?" Matt asked.

"I was here first," Tyler responded.

"No one wants you here," Matt told him. "They just put up with you because we were friends."

Tyler glanced to the others at the table for a second to find that none of them were denying that what Matt had said was the truth.

"You know what? You're right," Tyler said as he got up from the table. "We  _were_  friends."

As Tyler walked past Matt, he purposely slammed into his shoulder knocking him back a little.

"Don't touch me," Matt snarled without turning around.

"That's not what you said to Stefan last night, is it?" Tyler asked as he continued to walk away.

"No, it's not," Matt agreed, surprising everyone. "Because he's my friend and I'm not a homophobic prick like you are."

Damon had a newfound respect for Matt Donovan. He easily could have ignored it all or pretended to think that it was funny to protect himself. Instead he had stuck up for Stefan in front of the entire school, even if it meant that some people would assume that there was something going on there or would bother him. In fact Matt had basically told the entire school that he hadn't stopped the kiss.

Matt sat down next to Caroline and everyone at the table remained perfectly silent. No one had any idea what to say.

* * *

"I have a secret to tell you," Elena whispered into Damon's ear after a few seconds. "I kind of knew about Stefan before today."

* * *

"I have a whole room hidden in the basement of my house where the walls are covered in pictures of you," Bonnie said, imitating Elena's voice as Elena whispered to Damon.

* * *

"I know," Damon whispered back. "Stefan told me last night after he told me about the kiss and everything."

* * *

"No way, the walls in my room are covered in pictures of me too," Caroline said in her manliest voice as Damon whispered. "I'm winking at myself in most of them and I'm shirtless in every single one."

* * *

"I wanted to tell you, but he wasn't ready for you to find out," Elena whispered back.

* * *

"I take pictures of you while you sleep sometimes," Bonnie narrated for Elena.

* * *

"I can't really blame him for not telling me while I was acting like that," Damon whispered back to Elena. "I'm not mad at you, I'm glad that you kept his secret. Getting people to open up to you and keeping their secrets is what you're good at, right?"

* * *

"Which is exactly why I sleep naked," Caroline said in her man-voice. "Sometimes I'm not even asleep; I just pretend to be and let you do stuff to me while you think that I'm asleep. If you want we could go be not asleep in the bathroom right now."

* * *

"What are you two doing?" Elena asked, turning her attention towards Bonnie and Caroline.

"What, was that not what you two were saying?" Caroline asked innocently.

"I have this whole psychic connection thing going," Bonnie said. "Don't even try to deny that your conversation was the same as ours."

"You're right," Damon said with a smirk. "That was it word for word, especially the part about my walls. Sometimes I even kiss the pictures of myself."

* * *

As the table returned to its regular volume level, Rebekah whispered to Stefan, "You know I've always wanted a gay friend." Stefan's lip twitched up in amusement as she said it.

"Don't get your hopes up too high," Stefan whispered back to her. "You're going to be disappointed the instant that you try to talk about shoes and clothes."

"Don't sell yourself short," Rebekah whispered back. "I mean we already like the same guy."

"True," Stefan responded with a chuckle, not bothering to respond in a whisper.

* * *

Although the table returned to a state of relative normalcy, Matt and Stefan didn't speak one word to each other for the entire hour. Instead each of them periodically glanced over at the other one when he wasn't looking as if they were trying to figure out what the other was thinking.

* * *

Walking to history hadn't been so bad for Stefan since he had Elena and Jeremy walking with him. It wasn't until he actually arrived in the room and saw Tyler that Stefan began to dread the class.

* * *

Halfway through class, Alaric had left to go photocopy an assignment, which left Tyler the perfect opportunity to bother Stefan.

As Tyler taunted him, making stupid jokes and calling him by any insult he could think of, Stefan forced himself to completely tune the other teen out.

* * *

Klaus had been on his way back to class after using the washroom, when he heard Tyler's voice coming from a nearby classroom.

"Hey fag, I'm talking to you!"

Klaus stopped dead in his tracks and turned towards the source of the sound, feeling his anger rise up.

Klaus remembered when he had first moved to Mystic Falls; he hadn't fit in at all. Rebekah had somehow naturally found her place while Klaus had become the weird new kid that no one wanted around. Stefan had been the one who had stood up for Klaus and for the first month or two Stefan and Rebekah were the only two people that Klaus had had.

As he walked over to the doorway of the class where Tyler's voice was coming from, Klaus knew that it was his turn to return the favour.

* * *

"Stefan."

Stefan's head flicked up towards the doorway to see Klaus standing there.

A smirk formed on Klaus's face before he licked his lips and then made a face that could only be compared to that of a growling lion.

"See you tonight," Klaus told him.

Stefan cracked a smile at that while Elena covered her mouth to try to keep herself from laughing.

As Klaus turned to leave the doorway, Tyler began to speak again, "How many guys do you kiss a day, Salvatore?"

"Oh, that reminds me," Klaus said as he turned back around. "Tomorrow night does work for me, Tyler."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Tyler asked.

"We'll have the whole house to ourselves," Klaus said, his eyebrows jumping up and down once for dramatic effect as a lazy grin formed on his face.

"Oh my god," Elena whispered as she continued to laugh into her hand.

Meanwhile the rest of the class was looking between Tyler and Klaus with shocked reactions as they tried to figure out if there was really something going on between them or if it had just been a joke.

Tyler struggled to defend himself, unable to get out a coherent sentence.

Klaus heard footsteps behind him in the hallway and figured that it was probably Alaric.

He shot Tyler a wink, one that was quick enough to strike doubt in Tyler's classmates as to whether they were supposed to see it or not, and said, "See you tomorrow."

As Klaus turned around to leave, he practically walked into Alaric.

"Shouldn't you be getting back to your own class?" Alaric asked him.

"That's where I was just headed," Klaus said as he stepped around Alaric and began to head down the hallway with a giant smirk on his face.

* * *

Although neither Stefan nor Damon had directly told him, Alaric knew about Stefan. He had heard things in the hallways and from students in his earlier classes.

Normally he might not have believed it just from what the other teens were saying, but Alaric had known that it was true from Stefan's behaviour that morning and the snippets of conversation that he had overheard from Stefan and Damon the night before.

* * *

When Stefan walked into his last class, he sat down at his desk and nervously watched the door waiting for the moment that Matt would walk through. Even though Matt stuck up for him at lunch and said that they were still friends while Matt and Tyler weren't, Stefan was still worried and he knew that it would still be awkward.

When Matt walked in, he gave Stefan a nod of acknowledgement on his way to his regular desk in front of Stefan.

Stefan gave him a nod back and that was the only acknowledgement that there was between them for the entire math class.

The stares were worse during math while they sat together in the middle of the room.

 


	16. Chapter 16

During the car ride from school to Alaric's place Stefan hadn't been very chatty so Damon had decided not to push him.

* * *

That night Alaric had a date with Jenna.

He was just about to leave to take her to dinner when he headed towards the front door and asked, "You guys'll be okay, right?"

"Believe it or not we've survived under worse conditions without you," Damon responded. "In a house filled with food by ourselves isn't really that scary, we should be able to live."

"Right, you're teenagers," Alaric said. "You can probably make it through a night alone."

"Probably?" Stefan asked, raising an eyebrow at Alaric.

"Alright fine I'm going," Alaric said, raising his hands in a sign of innocence before taking the last few steps towards the door and walking outside.

* * *

Stefan was laying on what had become his bed a while later when Damon walked into the room and sat down next to him.

"So how's it going?" Damon asked.

"Weird," Stefan admitted. "Remember this morning when I was just worried about it being awkward around Matt?"

"Well at least it wasn't," Damon offered.

Stefan turned and gave his brother a look before saying, "Yes, it was. Just like practically everyone else is being weird because of it whether they're okay with it or not. Basically team not awkward consists of you, Elena, and Klaus."

"We should get t-shirts and put that across the front... Maybe put 'Team Stefan' or some cheesy logo on the back. We could have a picture of an obese polar bear on the back and have it say 'we break the ice'," Damon joked before taking on a more serious tone. "Most of them are trying; it's just going to take them a while to get used to it."

"It didn't take you a while," Stefan pointed out.

"Well yeah, of course it didn't," Damon said. "Because you're my little brother and I love you no matter what." Damon ruffled his brother's hair with minimal protest from Stefan. "Besides, you're still the same dork you were before, it's not like it changes anything. It honestly couldn't matter less to me whether you like Matt or Bonnie or the bird on that Froot Loop's commercial…. And don't tell anybody this, because then I'd have to deny it and probably have to kill you, but Matt's actually a pretty decent guy. Standing up for you like that when he could have easily just let Tyler rag on you or joined in to try and cover for himself. And he did pretty much tell the whole school that he didn't stop the kiss when Tyler was trying to embarrass him into joining his side."

"Yeah, but he hasn't said a word to me since the night of the kiss," Stefan said. "He gave me a nod when he walked into math and that's it."

"Ooh you left him speechless," Damon said as he suggestively waggled his eyebrows up and down.

Stefan gave Damon a look, although he couldn't stop the corner on one side of his mouth from curling up into the slightest of smirks.

"Sorry," Damon said, his tone serious once again. "At least you got a nod. And he called you guys friends at lunch today. It might not seem like it, but I bet that people get over it and it all goes back to normal. Everyone'll act normal around you again, you and Matt'll be friends, you won't have to worry about people finding out anymore, you'll have your kickass brother back-" Stefan rolled his eyes. "-And best of all is that you'll have gotten to French him and get away with it."

Stefan chuckled a little as Damon began to waggle his eyebrows again while gently elbowing Stefan.

"How did you even know there was tongue?" Stefan asked.

"I didn't until now," Damon said with a grin. "I was expecting you to correct me… Hold on a second, did he kiss back? Because you did not tell me that he kissed you back. Nice job."

"He did, but not like that," Stefan responded.

"Right, he kissed you back in that strictly platonic way that he kisses all the guys on the football team, right?" Damon asked. "Yeah, I go around making out with all of my guy friends because everyone knows that it doesn't mean anything."

"No, it was like reflex or something," Stefan said.

"You're lucky his reflex wasn't puking," Damon said, then laughed at his own joke.

"So is he," Stefan said. "It seems like it might be a little inconvenient."

"Yeah, you don't want him having a gag-reflex," Damon said with a wink.

"Cute," Stefan commented sarcastically.

"Careful, I'm taken," Damon said jokingly as he raised his arms in the air. "So, on a scale of one to ten how hard do I need to kick Tyler's ass because of history class?"

"Sorry, Klaus already stole your job of getting back at Tyler," Stefan said with a grin as Damon raised a questioning eyebrow. "Alaric left the room for a few minutes and Tyler dialled it up to maximum douche-mode. I managed to mostly ignore him, but Klaus was walking through the hallway and apparently he couldn't."

"What'd he do?" Damon asked.

"Basically he shot me the most ridiculous… I guess it was supposed to be a sexy face… said that he'd see me tonight, and then went to leave," Stefan said. "But then Tyler had to ask how many guys I kiss a day-" Damon grumbled something incoherent under his breath. "-So then Klaus came back and told Tyler that tomorrow night worked for him and that they'd have the house to themselves and then winked and left. You should have seen his face though, and Tyler's. He couldn't even form a sentence after. And I'm pretty sure that about half of the class actually thinks that Tyler and Klaus are sleeping together."

* * *

When Alaric was out with Jenna and she asked him what was new, he wanted to tell her all about how Damon and Stefan were staying with him, but knew that he couldn't.

"Nothing that I can think of," He answered. "How about you?"

* * *

Alaric smirked a little when he came home at ten thirty to find both boys lying fully clothed on top of the covers of Stefan's bed, both were dead asleep and Damon was snoring loudly.

Alaric grinned at the sight as he took a step into the room to turn the light switch off.

* * *

The next morning Stefan was able to drag himself out of bed a little easier when Alaric woke the pair up.

"How'd you guys manage to both fall asleep while fully clothed with the light on?" Alaric asked.

"I sleep when I'm bored," Damon responded. "And we were having this really boring conversation. Actually it was about you, Ric."

 _Ric_. It was the first time that Alaric had been called that, but he liked the sound of it and couldn't help the grin that formed on his face.

Damon wasn't quite sure why that had come out, but Ric did have a nice ring to it. Alaric hadn't argued with it or commented; instead he had just smiled and laughed at Damon's lame joke, so Damon figured that he was allowed to call him that.

Ric knew that he was getting too attached to the Salvatores too fast, and it was clear that they were getting a little too comfortable as well, but he couldn't help it. He knew that he was in trouble, he just didn't know what to do.

* * *

As the day went on, Stefan found himself growing able to ignore the looks that he was getting. Or at least that was what he told himself as he walked through the cafeteria towards his regular table.

Tyler was already seated at a different table than usual and as Stefan walked past him, Tyler made yet another one of his comments.

Stefan just kept walking and didn't look back until he was seated next to Rebekah. When he did look back he was more than a little surprised by what he saw. The look on his face caused everyone else at the table to turn to look as well.

Klaus had walked into the cafeteria a few seconds after Stefan had and he hadn't been amused by Tyler's comment. Instead of showing his anger, Klaus chose a much more effective form of retaliation.

As he was about to walk past Tyler, he stopped and placed his hand on Tyler's shoulder and allowed his hand to slowly glide down to reach Tyler's abdomen as he purposely whispered just loud enough for everyone at Tyler's table to hear, "See you tonight, Tyler." His voice was pure sex.

Before Tyler's mind had the time to react, Klaus removed his hand from the other male and began to walk to his regular table with a smile on his face.

Once he was a few steps away, Tyler seemed to have realized what had just happened as he turned around and demanded, "Stay the hell away from me, fag!"

Klaus's smile didn't falter as he sat down next to Caroline and across from his sister. Everyone at the table other than Elena, Jeremy, and Stefan, who had been in the history class the day before, gave him puzzled looks.

"What was that?" Rebekah asked.

"I was just making sure that our schoolmates start to think that Tyler and I are an item," Klaus said casually.

"Oh. Well then, that makes perfect sense," Rebekah said sarcastically.

"I'm teaching him a lesson," Klaus responded. "Every time that he acts like a homophobic douchebag, I'm going to make it look like it's because he's afraid to come out himself."

"And what does that have to do with the face that you made at me yesterday?" Stefan asked.

"That was my sexy face," Klaus responded with a smirk. "And that was just for you." His tone was jokingly suggestive.

Elena began to laugh and said, "I really hope that's a joke."

"Why? Every single person in that room was turned on and you know it," Klaus responded.

"Yeah, no." Jeremy commented.

* * *

Stefan and Matt once again didn't say a single word to each other, although they had developed a pattern of nodding at each other as they quickly passed by each other in the hallways.

* * *

Stefan was relieved as he left school knowing that it was the weekend.

* * *

On Monday morning the head nods were back as Stefan passed Matt on his way to his first class.

* * *

When lunch time came and Stefan was walking to his locker, Matt passed him in the hallway and nodded. Stefan nodded back as Matt passed him.

What Stefan hadn't been expecting was for Matt to suddenly stop and spin around to face him after passing.

"You know what, no," Matt said as he spun, causing Stefan to turn around as well. "This isn't just going to be our thing from now on; just nodding at each other and then going back to pretending the other doesn't exist. We're friends, this shouldn't be weird. So you kissed me. So what? I really don't want it to be weird, but it just is."

Stefan was shocked by the outburst, but managed to respond with, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that this is weirder than Klaus's 'relationship' with Tyler."

"I heard about that," Matt said, his lip twitching up into a smile. "I wish I could have seen the look on Tyler's face when Klaus said they'd have the house to themselves."

"You should have. He was trying to say something to argue with it, but he couldn't even form a sentence," Stefan said with a slight laugh.

* * *

"You still have to tell me about the whole living with Alaric thing," Elena whispered to Damon.

"I know. And I promise I will," Damon told her. "It's just been a busy week." Damon hadn't seen Elena alone since the night that Alaric had found out and Stefan had first gotten hit. He had been too busy with all that had happened, especially with Stefan.

With that thought, Damon began to wonder where his brother was. He was usually in the cafeteria by that point.

Just as Damon was debating going to go look for Stefan, a grin began to form on Bonnie's lips as she stared at something behind Damon and said, "Oh. My. God."

Damon and Elena both turned around at the same time to see Stefan and Matt walking through the doors of the cafeteria together. And even more surprisingly, Matt was laughing hysterically at something that Stefan was saying. It was like they were back to normal after not talking for almost a week.

"So what, are you two like together now?" Tyler asked loudly. His voice wasn't a tone of curiosity; the words had come out in disgust as if it was the most revolting thing that he could imagine.

"No, but if we were what the hell difference would it make to you?" Matt asked as the pair continued to walk.

The conversation faltered as Matt and Stefan continued to walk towards their table, feeling everyone's eyes on them.

* * *

"That's a terrible excuse," Klaus told Caroline as they sat on the grass.

"Gee, thanks for the sympathy," Caroline said sarcastically.

"You haven't told anyone about your dad because they're either in too good of a mood and you don't want to ruin it, or they already have their own problems and you don't want to make things worse?" Klaus asked. "So everyone just has to be having a completely average day and feel completely indifferent before you can tell them?"

"Okay maybe it's a bad excuse, but I just can't make myself do it," Caroline said. "It's like if I tell everyone then it makes it too real. It's like somehow telling people seals the fact that he isn't coming back."

Klaus decided not to try to say anything, but instead just wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

Caroline let him comfort her for a few minutes before saying, "We should probably go to the caf."

* * *

As they walked in together, Klaus made sure to ruffle Tyler's hair on the way by. He figured that he must have done something to deserve it.

* * *

The next morning when the Salvatores arrived at school, the Gilberts' car was in the parking lot and the Gilberts were nowhere in sight.

Damon found Elena standing in front of her open locker a few minutes later.

He walked up behind her, grabbed her by the waist with both hands, and then spun her around and pressed his lips against hers hard. Elena had been a little shocked, but she kissed back just as passionately and he could feel the smile form on her lips as they opened, allowing his tongue access. As they kissed, Damon grabbed both of Elena's hands in his own.

"Do I need to get a horny teenagers spray bottle?" Mr. Cranch asked as he stopped in front of them.

"That'd be great actually," Damon said after pulling away, their hands still intertwined. "Then I could stop for a drink of water without having to walk all the way to the water fountain. That'd be very considerate of you."

Mr. Cranch rolled his eyes and warned them, "Just keep it rated G in the hallways."

Damon resisted the urge to ask about the various rooms of the school as the teacher walked away.

"So what was all that for?" Elena asked, turning to look at Damon with a grin.

"Because I've barely seen you lately. And because I've missed you," Damon said, stepping towards her again so that there was barely any space between them. "Because you've been totally cool about me spending basically all of my time with Stefan even though I still owe you an explanation. Because you look completely gorgeous today. Because and I'm in a cheeseball kind of mood. And mostly because I wanted to."

"You're right, you are in a cheeseball mood today," Elena said with a smile. "I like it."

She grabbed his cheeks with both hands and pulled his face down for a quick kiss as she stretched up onto her tiptoes to meet his lips.

* * *

Meanwhile, Klaus had just walked up to Caroline's locker to witness the blonde angrily hang up her cell phone before putting her face in her hands and growling in exasperation.

"I'm guessing that wasn't a happy phone call," Klaus commented.

"No, my dad just had the stupidest idea ever," Caroline told him angrily. It came out as if she was barking at Klaus, but she couldn't help it; she was pissed. "And then just to prove how stupid he is he bought me a plane ticket without even asking me first."


	17. Chapter 17

_"I'm guessing that wasn't a happy phone call," Klaus commented._

_"No, my dad just had the stupidest idea ever," Caroline told him angrily. It came out as if she was barking at Klaus, but she couldn't help it; she was pissed. "And then just to prove how stupid he is he bought me a plane ticket without even asking me first."_

Klaus instantly felt a panic surge through his brain. Was Caroline moving to go live with her dad? He didn't think that he could handle waking up every morning knowing that he wouldn't get to see her face, that there wasn't even the slightest of chances that he would get to see her.

Klaus was about to ask if he wanted her to move there when Caroline began to speak again.

"He missed my birthday while he was off finding a new family," Caroline said. "But now he wants me to fly out there the weekend after this one to go celebrate Zoey's birthday. Because that's exactly what I want, to only get to see him for two days so that I can celebrate the birth of his replacement daughter. And apparently 'Zo' can't wait to meet me." Her voice was full of disdain as she spoke. "I don't want to go. Going means that I'm okay with all of it, that I'm fine with it just being this way from now on."

"If you don't go you'll regret it," Klaus told her. "And staying home won't fix anything. You should go and tell him exactly how you feel to his face."

"It's not that easy," Caroline argued.

Klaus went to argue with her, but the warning bell rang and before he could open his mouth, she was gone.

* * *

Caroline knew that she had to get it over with and tell Elena and Bonnie, but she once again ended up stopping herself at lunch. Everybody was just so goddamn cheery, that is except for Klaus who kept looking at her concernedly. She just couldn't stand to ruin that happiness, especially after the way that the last few days had been going.

Caroline just sat in silence for most of the lunch hour, and when she did speak up it was in minimal words.

Everyone else was too absorbed in their own thoughts and conversations to notice that one person was contributing less than others.

* * *

"So do you want to hang out tonight, Captain Cheeseball?" Elena whispered to Damon.

"Do I even have to answer that?" Damon whispered back before pressing his lips gently against hers.

"So that means that I'm allowed to call you Captain Cheeseball from now on?" Elena asked once their lips had separated.

"I prefer to be called Colonel Cheeseball actually," Damon told her with a tilted grin. "Corporal Cheeseball is also acceptable."

"How about Sergeant Sass?" Elena asked.

"Calm down Lieutenant Lip," Damon said playfully.

"Really? Lieutenant Lip?" Elena asked with a grin on her face as she held back her laughter.

* * *

That night when Damon went over to Elena's house, she immediately grabbed him by the hand and took him upstairs so that they could have a private conversation while Jeremy and Jenna were both busy downstairs.

"No Elena, we can't! Not while your aunt and brother are both home. Stop, why would I want to go into your room, Elena? No means no! No means no!" Damon shouted loudly as they walked up the stairs and towards her bedroom. "Rape is ape! My slutty dress does not mean yes! I'm not asking for it unless I'm verbally asking for it! What part of no don't you understand? And why is nobody helping me?"

"There's a really good chance that it's because you're very obviously lying," Elena responded. "You're a big fat liar with a surprisingly large collection of anti-rape slogans."

"Well I have to have them when I'm around someone like you," Damon responded with a grin, then began to shout again. "Jenna, help! Elena's touching me in inappropriate places! I told her not to, but she won't stop! Now she's trying to take my clothes off, she's like a rabid animal!"

"Yeah, sure," Jenna's voice came echoing up the stairs unamused. "Good luck with that."

"Why won't anyone help me?" Damon shouted again. "Elena, don't touch me there. That is my private square."

"Where are you getting all of these slogans from?" Jeremy shouted up the stairs.

"Yeah, did you like research these in advance?" Jenna shouted up.

Damon turned back to see Elena smirking at him.

"Your family is shockingly unconcerned for my safety," Damon muttered.

"I know," Elena said, giving him a comforting kiss.

"I could have gotten knocked up," Damon muttered. "I can't handle being pregnant at my age."

"You don't have to worry about that," Elena told him. "I don't know how to break this to you easily, but you're a boy. And boys can't get pregnant."

"My whole life is a lie," Damon said, clutching his chest as if he was having a heart attack.

"Yeah and I'm not trying to rape you," Elena added. "Remember that whole conversation where I asked you if you wanted to go upstairs so that we could talk in private and you agreed? It happened about two seconds before you started screaming like an idiot."

"Oh yeah, that," Damon said. "In that case, I have a story to tell you. Where should I start?"

"What happened after you went home the night that you and Alaric came over?" Elena asked.

"My dad wasn't exactly thrilled with the whole not knowing where I was thing," Damon began. "And he started up with the usual yelling and a bit more. But then he said something about 'that stupid brother of mine'. He doesn't-  _didn't_  ever call Stefan stupid. Stefan was the golden child who couldn't make a mistake. It was practically a hobby of his comparing me to Stefan and telling me how perfect Stefan was and how terrible I was and how I should try to be a little more like my brother. When I asked about it, he had some rant about how he thought that he had at least one good kid, but apparently he didn't. So I kind of threatened him about if he laid a hand on Stefan-" Damon cut himself off for a second before beginning to speak again in an entirely new sentence. "And he had the nerve to say that it was Stefan's fault for not answering him when he asked where I was. He said that he knew that Stefan knew, but was just lying. But he didn't know. And then my dad asked what I was going to do about it, so I showed him. I yelled at him and punched him hard. So then he kneed me in my sore ribs on purpose-"

Elena couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had known that Damon's dad was a horrible man. She had known that he'd beaten Damon. She'd known that something had happened and Stefan had gotten hit too, but she hadn't been prepared for the story even after the days that she'd had to brace herself.

"I know. Nice dad, right?" Damon asked with a pained smile at the sight of Elena's reaction. "Things escalated for a change and we had a whole fist fight. It ended with me lying on the floor bleeding and him leaving for some bar."

Elena wanted to ask how he could be so stupid, she wanted to ask why the hell he would start a fight with his dad, but she couldn't. Because as angry as she was at him for causing himself to get hit more, she was also proud of him for fighting back and couldn't blame him for standing up for Stefan.

"I told Ric that it was just me, so when we both showed up with bruises the next day he came over and gave us his number and said we could call him whenever we needed somewhere to go," Damon said.

Elena immediately noticed the use of 'Ric', but didn't comment on it. Instead she stored it in her memory bank to ask about later if she felt the need.

"Nothing happened again until the night that everyone was hanging out at the Grill. When we got home, he was waiting for us. He asked why he wasn't ever allowed to know where his sons were. So I suggested that maybe it was because he's a horrible father."

"Damon-" Elena began, but he cut her off.

"I know. And normally I wouldn't have, but it was the truth. And if I was the worse kid then he'd bother me instead of Stefan," Damon told her. "But then it kind of backfired when he asked Stefan if he thought that he was a terrible father. And sass-master Stefan was unleashed. When he went to go hit Stefan I stood in the way and refused to move. He hit me and managed to hit Stefan once, but then I was in the way again. So he said that if I didn't move that we could sleep outside. So I said fine and we left while he threatened us about how if we ever came back I'd wish that I'd just let him hit Stefan. I drove a few streets away and then called Alaric."

Elena noticed that Damon had called him Alaric again instead of Ric. She was beginning to wonder which one was the rarity and which one Damon called him most of the time.

"We stayed there that night and it was weird. Good weird though," Damon continued. "He didn't ask about it or anything. And he woke us up in the morning with pancakes."

Elena didn't like the way that Damon chuckled at this as if it was royal treatment. Like he'd never had an adult make him breakfast before. Or certainly not in a long, long time.

"And then he asked if we were going back to our place or if we wanted to stay at his again," Damon said. "Our dad made it pretty clear that he didn't want us ever going back there so we said we'd stay there again and now we're just kind of staying with him."

Although Elena was happy that Damon was happy and that the Salvatore brothers were out of their own household and staying with someone who took care of them, she couldn't help but worry about it. They couldn't just stay at their teacher's house forever without someone finding out and asking serious questions. And Damon seemed pretty attached already if he was calling Alaric 'Ric', she wasn't sure if he would be able to handle it if they had to go live without him.

"Look, I'm not stupid. I know that it's just a temporary thing," Damon said, seeming to read her facial expression. "But even if it is, I'm happy right now. I mean Ric's great and he doesn't interrogate us when we come home. And I don't have to try to avoid going home or try to sneak up the stairs before I get found."

It broke Elena's heart that those little things that she had every day were enough to make Damon so happy.

"Do you think that you could look maybe just the teensiest bit less miserable about my happiness?" Damon asked teasingly.

"I'm happy that you're happy," Elena told him, cracking a smile.

"Good," Damon said, with a tilted smirk. "…Because otherwise you'd be a total bitch."

"What did you just say to me?" Elena asked in an offended tone through her laughter. "What happened to Captain Cheeseball? I liked him."

"I said that you're the most interesting, gorgeous, caring, clever, Disney-obsessed girl in the entire room," Damon said with a smirk.

"Well at least it started out nice," Elena pointed out. "And it didn't end  _horribly_."

"I couldn't say the house because I thought Jenna would get angry," Damon said. "And I don't want her to gut me like your closet."

"I've seen her stab a potato to death," Elena said with a grin. "It was pretty gruesome, you made a wise choice."

"And she's the one who calls  _me_  a murderer," Damon said with a smirk on his face. "And you allow her around knives why?"

"You try confiscating knives from a wacked out killer," Elena said. "It's not an easy task. And certainly not one for the faint of heart."

"So you wait until she's sleeping," Damon said. "And that's when you strike."

"Okay now you're making it sound more like you're plotting to kill her than steal her weapons," Elena pointed out.

"Yeah, I've been scouting the place for weeks," Damon told her. "Even though you vouched for me the first night I decided to wait until Jenna was comfortable around me, comfortable enough to be sure that I was joking about something going on in the room. Comfortable enough that she wouldn't come running if one of us was screaming out for help. I've had my handy dandy safety scissors with me the whole time just waiting for the right moment to strike."

"Safety scissors can barely cut paper," Elena pointed out.

"So it'll be a slow and painful death for you," Damon said with a grin.

"I feel like there would be a lot more efficient methods of murdering me in this room," Elena pointed out. "Instead of torturing me while other people are in the house to overhear. And since when are you trying to kill me? I thought that you were trying to kill Jenna."

"I don't point out all of the flaws in your plans," Damon said with a teasing pout, there was a smirk hidden underneath that pout.

"Really? You don't point out the flaws in my plans?" Elena challenged. "Because you definitely didn't have a five minute pointless argument over how I stay clothed when I Hulk out?"

"Okay so we're both nit-picking assholes," Damon said with a shrug. "You'd think that it would mean our plans would have fewer holes in them."

"The cheese is the problem, it's full of holes," Elena said.

"That has got to be the lamest pun I have ever heard," Damon said, smiling a little too much at the poor attempt at a joke.

It was just like that, the moment when Damon Salvatore realized that he was completely in love with Elena Gilbert. There wasn't any big super romantic trip or date, there wasn't anything fancy, and there wasn't even a funny joke. But sitting there, listening to Elena giggle adorably at her horrible pun, he couldn't deny how he felt. The realization hit him like a ton of bricks and a giant grin formed on his face.

"Elena!" Jenna's voice came echoing up the stairs in the tone of a whining five year old. "Eleeeena!"

"I'll be back in a second," Elena told Damon as she stood and headed towards the staircase.

She met Jeremy halfway down the stairs; he was fleeing from Jenna because he recognized that tone all too well as a disaster waiting to happen.

* * *

"What's wrong with you?" Elena asked when she walked into the kitchen to find Jenna eating out of a large tub of ice cream and using the ice cream scoop as a spoon.

Jenna was dressed very similarly to her laundry day outfit from the first day that she had met Alaric; her hair was tied up in a messy bun. She was sitting in her chair curled up into a ball of self-pity.

"Well problem number one is that I'm moping and you don't even have the common decency to notice," Jenna complained before shoveling some more ice cream into her mouth. "Neither of you, you just came home and did whatever while I've been waiting for you to come home so that I could properly mope. I gave up on waiting. I didn't want to listen to you being all giggly and happy while I'm dying on the inside."

"What the hell happened today?" Elena asked as she sat down in the chair next to Jenna.

"It wasn't today," Jenna said. "Not all of it really, it's complicated. I don't want to talk about it."

"You not wanting to talk about it?" Elena asked, although she suspected that Jenna was going to pull her usual move and begin to spill the entire story within minutes.

"I'm not exactly in a chatty mood, I just didn't want to be sitting in the kitchen alone crying while eating a whole tub of ice cream," Jenna said. "So get a spoon because I don't want to eat this whole thing by myself."

Elena did as she was told and then dipped her spoon into the tub to get a spoonful of ice cream.

"Well don't take that much," Jenna complained. "I just wanted you to take a little bit so that I could say I didn't eat the whole thing alone. I didn't mean that you could take a crater out of it."

* * *

As Damon sat alone upstairs, he lost control of his thoughts as they quickly rolled downhill; very, very downhill.

The happy Damon who had a great life and who was so happy about being in love with Elena began to fade away as little seeds of doubt began to plant themselves in his mind.

Why would Elena love him back? And even if she did, the relationship would still be doomed. He was a complete moron, he didn't deserve her. His dad was right about him the whole time and no matter how much he tried to deny it or convince himself otherwise, the truth was still there. All that he was doing was getting them both too attached so that it would just hurt them more when it inevitably ended.

Because Elena Gilbert was smart, one day she would figure it out. Maybe it wouldn't be soon, but one day Elena Gilbert would find out just how broken Damon was. One day she would find out just how stupid he was; how useless. One day Elena Gilbert would realize that she was way too good for him and that he wasn't worth her time. And when that day came, Damon knew that he wouldn't be able to handle it.

Damon tried to reason with his own mind, but it was too hard. When you're told every day that you're a piece of shit and a waste of space, it's hard not to believe it. That was the worst part of what Guiseppe had done. It wasn't the physical pain that he had caused; it was the emotional scarring that he had left Damon. It was the emotional and verbal abuse that had started a long, long time before the beatings that had left the real damage. It was the damage that was a lot harder to see than the physical damage. It was the damage that was a hell of a lot easier to hide, but was so much more difficult to cope with.

"I wouldn't expect Elena to come back soon if I were you," A voice dragged Damon out of his downward spiral of thoughts.

Damon looked up to see Jeremy leaning against the frame of the door.

Once Damon was dragged out of his thoughts, he began to wonder why he was even going down that mental road. He decided to distract himself with Jeremy while he was there.

"Is Jenna having a breakdown again?" Damon asked.

"I'm not positive, but I think so," Jeremy responded. "I kind of ran away the instant that she started whining for Elena. It's not a good sign."

"So does she really have them this often, or do I just bring out the crazy in here?" Damon asked.

The first time that Damon had come over, Jenna had come home from her date and broken down on Elena's bed. Then there had been Jenna getting ready for her date, and then there was whatever was happening then. More times than not, Jenna had been upset about something when Damon was over.

"It's not usually this bad," Jeremy said. "Dating Jenna usually just has the one pity party. But she's going full out crazy now, which means that she probably really likes Alaric. Either that or she's just finally lost it for good."

* * *

"Wow, so you actually don't want to talk about it," Elena commented after a few minutes of silence.

"Well what did you expect when you said that I didn't?" Jenna asked.

"It's just that usually you say that and then I say okay and then you spend two and a half hours telling me everything in great detail," Elena pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess," Jenna admitted, a giant scoop of ice cream filling her mouth as she spoke. "But I don't know it's like this is different. And if I tried to explain it I feel like I would end up sounding crazier than I already do." She wiped away the melting ice cream that was leaking down her chin.

"Do you want to know what you look like right now?" Elena asked, she scooped a large portion of ice cream for herself and then shoved it in her mouth. "This is what you look like." As she spoke, ice cream dribbled out of her mouth too.

Jenna began to laugh, allowing the ice cream to dribble out of her mouth once again. This caused Elena to laugh and ice cream began to pour out of her mouth as it melted.

Both of the women had too much ice cream in their mouth to swallow without giving themselves worse brain and teeth freeze than they already had.

"Why is this so cold?" Jenna complained, grabbing her head as a brutal case of brain freeze took over.

"I don't know, but it's hurting my mouth," Elena said, fanning her mouth as if it would somehow heat up the frozen treat.

"That is attractive," Damon said in a sarcastic tone of amazement as he and Jeremy daringly entered the kitchen after hearing the sound of laughter and hoping that it would be safe.

"Don't look at us," Jenna said, turning away from the pair and wiping the excess of melted ice cream from her face with a towel.

Elena followed suit, grabbing onto another towel and madly wiping at her face.

As they washed their faces off, the two Gilbert ladies finally managed to swallow the large helpings of ice cream that were in their mouths.

"It's sad when I'm the least embarrassing one in the family," Jeremy said as he grabbed his own spoon.

"Hey, that isn't for you," Jenna said, slapping his hand away from the ice cream.

"Too bad," Jeremy said before scooping a spoonful into his mouth.

"You are going to spoil your dinner," Jenna said in her very rare parenting tone.

"Oh, but you're going to be fine for eating after having half a tub of ice cream?" Jeremy challenged.

"I don't know what you're talking about, it was this empty when I took it out of the freezer," Jenna told him.

"That's why the sealing plastic is sitting right there on the counter, right?" Jeremy asked.

"Exactly," Jenna said. "Besides I'm the parental figure, I get to make the decisions around here… I just choose not to most of the time. I hand the authority over to Elena. Elena, tell him."

"Yeah, I don't think that you're allowed to eat ice cream, Jer," Elena said with a fake pitying look. The smirk in her eyes appeared seconds before the actual smirk on her lips.

* * *

When Damon got back home, or rather back to Alaric's home, he already had all of the negative thoughts filling his mind once again. They had caught up to him during the car ride there.

* * *

By the next morning, the thoughts hadn't gone away. Damon was completely torn between the negative thoughts and his intense feelings for Elena. Being around her only clouded his judgement, so he thought that maybe he should take a little time away from her to think.

That thought process was exactly how he ended up in Alaric's classroom instead of in the cafeteria that day at lunch.

"You alright?" Alaric asked.

"Yeah, I just need somewhere to think about stuff," Damon responded.

Damon was once again struck and amazed by how easily Alaric had accepted the response instead of trying to push further for some sort of explanation.

It wasn't too long before Damon's phone began buzzing in his pocket to notify him that he had received a worried text from Elena.

* * *

**From Elena:**

_Where are you?_

* * *

Damon clicked out of the text and then put his phone back into the pocket of his pants.

A few minutes later his phone buzzed again. Damon decided that he'd better look even though he didn't want to see it if Elena was persisting.

* * *

**From Stefan:**

_So I'm not allowed to hide, but you are? Where are you even?_

**From Damon:**

_I'm not hiding, I'm just thinking about stuff. And you should know by now that I'm a hypocrite._

* * *

Elena didn't understand why Damon wasn't responding to her or why he was off hiding somewhere, but it worried her. She had checked if he was in his old hiding spot, but Damon Salvatore was nowhere to be found.

She didn't heard a word from Damon or seen him for the rest of the day.

* * *

When Damon got home, he had already made up his mind on what he had to do. He just wasn't sure on how to go about it. He wasn't sure how to make sure that he could go through with it without having to back out at the look on her face.

Damon wasn't exactly in the best of moods as he thought about what he was going to end up doing, and all of his flaws, and all of the reasons that Elena deserved better than he could ever offer to her.

"What's wrong with you today?" Stefan asked as Damon flopped down face first onto the couch.

"What are you talking about? I'm dandy," Damon said, his voice muffled by the couch cushion.

"Clearly," Stefan said sarcastically.

"Me and Elena broke up," Damon said into the couch.

He wasn't sure why it had come out that way; he had meant to say that they were breaking up or that they were going to break up.

Damon figured that if he caught her early enough the next morning to break up with her, then there would have been no harm in for some reason telling Stefan the wrong way.

Because Damon already felt like it had ended with the heartache that he was going through. The relationship was already over for him, so why shouldn't he tell Stefan that it  _was_  over?

* * *

The next morning, Damon was going to go talk to Elena first thing. But as he walked through the hallways and caught sight of her concerned look, he immediately felt the need to temporarily chicken out.

It wouldn't be right of him to do it right before school and ruin her entire day. Besides, he had to go to his locker and get ready for class and he didn't want to make himself late…

Although they were fairly poor excuses, Damon allowed them take control as he quickly turned into the nearest hallway to dodge her as she began to head towards him.

* * *

When lunch time came, Damon found himself hiding in Alaric's room once again. And yes, he was hiding as much as he didn't want to admit it to himself.

As he sat there, he went over and over in his head what he would say to Elena when he went to go talk to her at the end of the day.

* * *

"Do you know what's with Damon?" Elena asked Stefan as they sat together during the work time of history class. "He hasn't talked to me since Tuesday and he's been off hiding somewhere and acting really weird."

"I think that he's just still trying to get used to the whole break-up thing," Stefan commented.

"The whole what?" Elena asked.

She felt as if her lungs were about to collapse in on her. She must have heard wrong. There was no way that she had heard Stefan correctly. If they had broken up she would have known, wouldn't she?

Elena had to make a conscious effort to breathe as her brain whirred at a mile a minute.

"He didn't tell you?" Stefan asked; his eyes practically bugging out of his head as he realized the truth from Elena's reaction. "Elena I am so sorry, he told me that you guys broke up." Then Stefan began to mutter half to himself. "And to think that he actually had me feeling sorry for him…"

Elena could feel the tears fighting as hard as they could to escape from her eyes. She felt like she was going to be sick and she couldn't handle being in that room filled with people anymore.

Elena wiped at her eyes as one traitorous tear made its way down her cheek. She knew that she was just seconds away from a complete emotional breakdown in the middle of the classroom.

Through some form of twin telepathic link, Jeremy instantly froze and turned towards his sister with a look of concern just milliseconds before she got up to leave the room. He had been looking the other way and hadn't overheard the conversation; he had just  _known_  that something was wrong. He had felt it, thick in the air.

To the other students in the room, it had appeared as if the two twins had gotten up at the exact same time since Jeremy had sensed it in advance and reacted so fast, rushing out of the room behind his sister to go figure out what had happened.

* * *

Elena was walking as fast as she could, oblivious to the footsteps that were catching up behind her. She just wanted to get to the nearest washroom as fast as possible before she would crumple to the ground in the hallway.

"Elena!"

Elena froze at the sound of her brother's voice a few feet behind her.

As she turned around, she was unable to hold the tears back and she began to feel herself slipping into hysterics.

Jeremy closed the distance between them and pulled his sister into a hug before asking, "What happened?"

"Apparently Damon and I broke up," Elena said through her sobs. "And he decided to tell Stefan and not me."

"He's an asshole," Jeremy muttered as he held his sister.

"Yeah," Elena agreed, although she couldn't help but feel like something was wrong with him. That's what made it even worse, she couldn't even fully be mad at him because she was too worried for him.

Elena violently wiped her tears away as they continued to flow.

"And I just don't even understand why we're supposedly broken up," Elena told Jeremy. "He's been avoiding me since Tuesday night. I haven't heard a word from him since he left our place… And everything was just so normal and happy when he left and I just don't understand."

The pair stayed in the hallway for a few minutes longer while Elena calmed herself down, before returning back to the classroom.

* * *

"You seriously didn't even break up with her yourself, you sent me to go do it for you?" Stefan demanded as he and Damon got into their car after school. "That's a real dick move, even for you."

Damon felt both relieved and sick. He was glad that he didn't have to break up with himself because he wasn't sure how he would get through it, but he also felt mortified that she'd had to hear it that way.

* * *

When Elena got home, she spotted Jenna curled up into a ball of self-pity on the couch, watching her favourite old romantic movie.

Elena instantly flopped down next to her in an equally self-pitying position and let out a loud groan.

"You sound happy," Jenna commented.

"I'm joining your moping party," Elena told her.

"What happened to you?" Jenna asked.

"Boys are stupid," Elena muttered. "And you still haven't told me what happened to you."

"Boys are stupid," Jenna told Elena.

"Alaric?" Elena asked in a confused tone. "I thought that things were going well for you guys."

"I thought that things were going well for you and Damon," Jenna countered. "But now here you are, lying on the couch moping about your boy troubles."

"I'll tell you about mine if you tell me about yours," Elena offered.

"You go first," Jenna said as she stared at where her phone was sitting on the coffee table.

"You go first, yours happened first," Elena argued, and then noticed Jenna looking at the phone. "What, he hasn't answered you."

"It's more than that," Jenna told her.

"He's just acting... weird lately," Jenna told her. "And okay, I know that I haven't really known him for that long. But I know when a guy's acting weird. I've had enough experiences with assholes and cheaters to be suspicious."

"Suspicious because of what?" Elena asked.

"I don't know, I can just tell that there's something that he's hiding from me. I can feel it whenever I ask him what's new. There's something that he isn't telling me about, or more like someone. And then I heard some voices or something in the background when we were on the phone and he had already said that he was home alone. And we always go out or hang out here; I never go to his place. The bastard's probably living with some girl. Why do I always have to pick the cheaters?"

"He doesn't seem like that type," Elena said.

Even after how badly Damon had ended things, or how he'd had Stefan end them for him, Elena couldn't tell his secret. But she also knew that there wasn't any other woman living with Alaric and that the voices had been Stefan and Damon or the TV or something. She wanted to explain to Jenna that there was nothing sketchy going on with Alaric, that he'd just been busy, but she didn't know how to prove it or convince Jenna without telling her what had been going on.

"Alaric doesn't seem like the cheating type," Elena told Jenna again. "I mean he's nice and he cares about you and I just couldn't see him sneaking around with some other girl behind your back."

"That's because this time I'm the mistress that's being hidden," Jenna said with a frown. "Now I'm the slut ruining a perfectly good relationship, even after I know exactly how it feels to be cheated on. And you're right. He is nice and he does care about me, just not as much as he cares about the girl that he's living with. And maybe he isn't even the cheating type, maybe I just bring out the cheater in people."

"Maybe this is all just some big misunderstanding," Elena suggested. "Maybe it was just the TV that you heard and the rest is you imagining things because you're paranoid about getting cheated on again. You've never actually seen him with someone else. You should at least try to talk to him about it before you break up over assumptions."

"I guess so," Jenna agreed glumly.

Jenna still wasn't convinced that there wasn't something going on, but she did feel better after talking about it with her niece.

"We've been over my stuff, let's hear yours," Jenna said.

* * *

The next day as Jenna sat at home, her thoughts began to whirl and whirl, going further and further downhill as she waited for Elena to come and talk her out of the very bad idea that had popped into her head.

Elena didn't come home in time though, so Jenna decided to go through with it.

Before she left, Jenna got dressed in her favourite outfit. She didn't worry about whether he would like the outfit or not like she had before their first date, she didn't need assholes to like her clothing choices. Instead she dressed in her favourites that she felt hot and confident in.

She needed to make sure that she looked good to make it hurt more for him when he lost her. She needed to look good for that surge of self-confidence it would give her.

Once she was finished getting ready in a record breaking ten minutes, Jenna checked her reflection quickly, making the last adjustments to her hair, before turning towards the door.

* * *

As Jenna arrived at the parking lot of the high school, the students and teachers were just beginning to exit the building.

"Jenna, what are you doing here?" Alaric asked when she caught him in the hallway outside of his classroom.

"I need to talk to you," Jenna said, her voice strong and full of fury. "And I figured that I'd come here so that you can't try to weasel your way out of it."

"What?" Alaric asked, genuinely confused.

"I know that you're hiding something from me," Jenna told him, her anger winding up as many students turned to look at them. "I'm not stupid and I'm not letting yet another guy hide stuff from me. I've dealt with enough cheaters and liars. So unless you want to tell me what the hell you're hiding, I'm done."

"I know that you aren't stupid," Alaric said, his brow crinkling a little as he frowned. He grabbed her arm with one hand before saying, "And I'm not hiding anything from you."

"Well clearly you think that I  _am_  stupid," Jenna said, ripping her arm from his grasp. "Whatever your secret is, I hope that it was worth losing me over."

Alaric closed his eyes in exasperation. He didn't want to lose Jenna and he didn't want to hide things from her, but he couldn't tell her about the boys. He wouldn't tell her about the boys without their permission, especially not in the crowded hallway that was packed with other teenagers.

"Jenna, wait!"

Alaric's eyes burst open as he heard Damon's voice and saw that Damon was doing what Alaric should have been and was chasing after the fuming Jenna.

"No offense, but I'm really not in the mood for chatting right now," Jenna said as she whirled around to glare at the boy who was standing a few short feet away from her. "Especially with an asshole like you."

She turned around to storm out once again, but stopped once Damon began to talk again.

"The reason that Alaric didn't tell you about it was because it wasn't his secret to tell... It was mine. I asked him not to tell anyone," Damon said. "Because I didn't want people finding out that-"

"Damon," Alaric said in a 'you don't have to do this' tone.

He was cut off when Damon held up a hand for him to hold on.

"Because I didn't want everyone to find out that my dad drinks a lot. And when he drinks, which is basically any time that he isn't passed out from the last round of drinking, that he gets mad and takes it out on me. Alaric found out and he's helping me. Me and Stefan are staying with him because we got kicked out. That's what he wasn't telling you."

There was a bunch of whispering, confusion, and kids pulling out their cellphones within the following few seconds.

"You- oh," Jenna wasn't sure what to say to that.

Alaric couldn't believe that Damon had really just voluntarily told the school about the fact that his dad had beaten him. And it had been for him that he had confessed it.

"Yeah," Damon said, before walking past her towards the exit of the school.

* * *

Meanwhile in the parking lot, Caroline had just finally gathered up her courage to tell Elena about her dad leaving.

During the prior few days she had realized that Klaus had been right, that she would regret it if she didn't go and that the worst case scenario would be that it would be a chance to give her father a piece of her mind.

She had been acting like Klaus had no idea what she had been going through, but that wasn't true. Klaus hadn't seen his father or his two brothers in years; he would probably kill for the chance to go visit on his dad's new girlfriend's daughter's birthday. She had been hoping for any chance of seeing her dad again, but when an opportunity had finally presented itself, Caroline had been too greedy and self-obsessed to take it right away. She had been waiting for a better offer.

Since she had decided that she had to go, she had been trying to figure out how to tell her friends. Finally she had decided to just tell Elena first and then tell her other friends one at a time afterwards.

"Okay, don't say anything because I have something important to tell you and I don't really know how to do it. Look, I've been wanting to tell you, but it's just been really hard to get it out. So I just need you to stand there and listen before I wimp out again, alright?" Caroline took Elena's silence as agreement. "My dad left us for a new replacement girlfriend, complete with a replacement daughter. He's not coming back, and he never even came back to tell us in person. He just phoned my mom and then made her break it to me."

"I'm really sorry, Care," Elena told her.

"Yeah, but the other day he at least called me. He bought me a plane ticket to go visit him for replacement daughter's birthday next weekend," Caroline said before noticing the slight bags under her friend's eyes and Elena's unusually unhappy appearance. "What's wrong?"

"Damon broke up with me," Elena said. "Through an unknowing Stefan."

"How?" Caroline asked.

"He told Stefan that we broke up and then just waited for Stefan to bring it up in conversation with me," Elena told her friend.

"Oh sweetie, I am so sorry," Caroline said, pulling her friend into a hug.

"Thanks," Elena said.

"You know what; we're having an emergency sleepover at my place tonight. I'll text Bonnie," Caroline said as she released Elena from her hug. "But first we're going to Tyler's party tonight and we're going to have a whole lot of boy free fun and we are going to get you drunk on his beer."


	18. Chapter 18

Damon wouldn't have gone to Tyler Lockwood's party that night since breaking up with Elena, especially after his little confession in the hallway earlier that day, if he hadn't known that it would be worse for him not to go.

He had to go and show everyone that he didn't care what they thought instead of hiding from them, especially since Stefan was mad at him for how he had broken up with Elena and since he didn't have Elena to talk to about everyone finding out.

He also had to go since Stefan was going and Damon wanted to make sure that Stefan didn't get too mad at him. He wanted to get back onto Stefan's good side once again and that time he planned on staying there.

And then there was the whole thing where Jenna had forgiven Alaric for hiding things and had apologized for assuming things, so they were going out for dinner that night.

Damon knew that if he stayed at home alone moping like he wanted to, that there was a chance that Alaric wouldn't leave and that even if he did, he would be concerned the whole time. Damon figured that he had already done enough damage to Ric and Jenna's relationship, he didn't need to cause anymore.

* * *

"What are you doing here?" Tyler asked when he noticed that Stefan was there. "Came to try and get a few guys drunk so that you can sleep with them?"

"No actually," Stefan said. "But everyone knows that the whole reason that you throw parties is because the only way that you can get a girl to sleep with you is to get her as drunk as possible. And even then you have to force yourself on most of them."

He walked away as the smile fell from Tyler's face.

* * *

Klaus had overheard and decided that his little lessons for Tyler clearly weren't enough; he was going to have to make things a little more obvious that night. He didn't go over right away though, he had a whole night to mess with Tyler Lockwood and he didn't want to make it too apparent to the rest of the partygoers that it was payback by going over right after Tyler had taunted Stefan.

* * *

A while later, when Tyler was standing in a group of girls telling some stupid story that half of them looked incredibly bored of, Klaus decided to make his first move.

Klaus went to go walk by on the way to get another drink, and as he passed Tyler, he grabbed his ass and leaned his lips over to brush them against Tyler's neck before continuing to walk away.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Tyler asked, grabbing Klaus by the wrists and pushing him back against the wall.

Klaus quickly smirked and decided to turn it into a less threatening pose and a much more sexual looking one just through his own reaction.

"I think that the real question is what's wrong with you," Klaus whispered into Tyler's ear as he leaned forward as much as possible, his lips were just centimeters from the other boy's ear. "If you want me to leave you alone then you had better leave Stefan Salvatore alone."

Klaus leaned back against the wall, waiting for a reaction.

"You know, you and your boyfriend can both go fuck yourself," Tyler growled under his breath, giving Klaus his best death glare.

Klaus appeared unphased as his smirk grew even larger.

Before Tyler had the chance to ask what the hell he thought was so amusing, Klaus had stretched upwards and pressed his lips hard against Tyler's. Klaus's arms were still pinned to the wall by Tyler, so it looked like the other boy was much more into it than he was. In fact it looked like both of them were more into it than they really were.

"The fuck?" Tyler asked, as he pushed himself back off of Klaus with as much force as possible.

"Maybe I'm sick of hiding our relationship!" Klaus said angrily, making sure that everyone nearby would overhear even if they hadn't already been straining their ears to listen to the conversation. "Maybe I'm sick of you treating me like garbage. Either you kiss me right here in front of everyone or it's over."

"What the hell are you talking about? We aren't a couple, we never fucking were!" Tyler shouted, looking around the room trying to find someone who believed him.

"Oh that, that hurts," Klaus said, biting his lip and forcing himself to look like he was fighting back tears. "I don't know what I ever saw in someone like you. I'm done with this."

Klaus turned around and stormed across the room, until he reached his group of friends.

Before anyone could even comment, Klaus grabbed Stefan's drink out of his hand and took a giant gulp.

"I need it more than you do," Klaus told him afterwards. "Tyler's mouth tasted like vomit."

"I'm pretty sure that you get my drink without an argument after that," Stefan told him. "I can't believe that you seriously just did that."

* * *

"He is weirdly convincing when he does that," Matt said, looking over to Klaus as he stormed away from Tyler.

"I know," Rebekah said. "It's a little concerning that he can pretend to like Tyler Lockwood of all people that easily."

"Yeah, but considering the look that he's giving Caroline right now, I think that you don't have to worry about him and Tyler," Matt pointed out with a slight smirk. "Besides, Tyler already made it pretty clear that he wasn't interested."

* * *

"It was really sweet what you did for Stefan," Caroline told Klaus as they sat together a few minutes after the kissing incident.

"It was almost worth having to kiss him to get to see the look on his face afterwards," Klaus admitted.

"Well you didn't  _have_  to kiss him," Caroline said with a smirk.

"Well not exactly, but I couldn't just let him keep being an asshole," Klaus pointed out. "And it was kind of the perfect chance to mess with him and to break up our fake relationship all in one."

"He doesn't look like he's having a hard time getting over it," Caroline said with a smirk as she looked over to where Tyler was hitting on a very drunk girl.

"It's looking like he's going to be the first one to move on," Klaus pointed out.

"Well we can't let that happen, can we?" Caroline asked before leaning towards him and pressing her impossibly soft lips against his for the briefest of seconds. "Congratulations, you just won the break-up. And without even having to use your sexy face. Which, by the way, I still haven't seen…"

Klaus just stared at Caroline, unable to respond.

"I have to go find Elena; I'm kind of failing at boy free night," Caroline told him.

"You might get to see the face eventually," Klaus told her with a smirk as she stood up to leave.

"Might?" She asked, raising an eyebrow to challenge him.

"I know what game you're playing, Caroline Forbes," He told her. "You give me the teeniest of kisses and an excuse for why you did it, and then you walk away like it never happened. Two can play at being a tease."

"I'd like to see you try, Mikaelson," Caroline said before walking away.

"So you admit it?" He called after her.

Caroline didn't respond, she just continued to walk away as if she hadn't heard him.

* * *

" _We_  are dancing now," Caroline said as she grabbed Elena away from where she was standing talking to Bonnie, Stefan, and Jeremy.

Damon was off in the corner somewhere while Matt and Rebekah were still off talking and laughing.

"No one else is dancing," Elena pointed out.

"Be a leader, not a follower, Elena," Caroline said with a grin. "And drink up if you're too scared."

"Are you trying to make me feel the need to prove that I'm not scared?" Elena asked.

"That depends, is it working?" Caroline asked as she grabbed Elena by the arm and dragged her a little away.

Elena chugged the rest of her drink, then put the cup down.

"Maybe," Elena said.

"Good because we have some boys to torture," Caroline said with a large smirk.

"What?" Elena asked with a slight giggle.

"Well Damon Salvatore has been doing what he does best all night, lurking," Caroline told her. "And for someone who broke up with you, he's sure been watching you a lot tonight. And we all know how much he likes you; he didn't just flip that off. So we're going to show him what he's missing out on."

Elena's eyes flickered to where Caroline had glanced at as she spoke to find Damon sitting off by himself. His gaze instantly flickered away when hers eyes met his.

"You said  _boys_ , not boy," Elena pointed out. "Is there anyone specifically that you're trying to torture?"

"We're going to torture all of them," Caroline said with a grin. "Because we're hot and they're going to wish that they could be dancing with us the way that we dance with each other."

She grabbed Elena's hand and spun her out with a grin.

* * *

Damon couldn't help but have the tiniest and subtlest of smirks form on his face as the two girls danced up against each other, all the while laughing like idiots. As Damon saw the giant grin on Elena's face and heard her laughter, he knew that he had made the right decision. She was already surviving without him. She didn't need him at all.

* * *

Elena and Caroline continued to dance together, laughing as they did so.

The grin fell off of Elena's face when she spotted Damon watching her with the exact same look that he had been watching with the night of the dance as she and Caroline had made fools of themselves.

Damon's smirk instantly fell and his eyes shifted away to look disinterestedly at something next to him as soon as their eyes made contact.

"What?" Caroline asked, noticing the look on Elena's face.

"Nothing," Elena said, deciding to wait to deal with Damon later. She wasn't going to let him ruin the fun that she was having.

She forced the grin back onto her face before she grabbed Caroline by the wrist to spin her as she began to dance again.

* * *

A few songs later, the girls decided to take a break from the dancing.

Elena waited until Caroline had walked a few feet away and been approached by Klaus before she headed towards the corner where Damon was still sitting.

"I hear we broke up," Elena said, her tone full of venom.

"It's not exactly news," Damon said in a disinterested tone as he peered at something behind her as if it were the most interesting thing that he had ever seen.

"Well excuse me for not using my psychic powers to find out earlier," Elena said, crossing her arms.

"Yeah well, I don't have to deal with you anymore. So why don't you just go away? Bother someone else," Damon said, still looking behind her.

"If you're so done with me then why were you looking at me like that while I was dancing with Caroline?" Elena asked.

"Who says that it was you I was looking at?" Damon said with a smirk as he continued to look away.

"Just tell me one thing and then I'll leave you alone," Elena said. "Why exactly are we broken up?"

"I don't have to explain anything to you," Damon said. "You're going to leave me alone right now."

"No, you're going to listen to me. And you're going to answer my question," Elena said, grabbing his chin with her hand and forcing him to turn and look at her.

Damon ripped his chin from his hand and stood up, his eyes just inches away from hers as he stared her down angrily.

"Alright, you really want to know why?" Damon hissed. "Maybe it's because I hate you. The only reason that I even put up with you before was as a form of self-torture. I thought that I deserved the punishment of you when you showed up and wouldn't keep your weaseling little nose out of my business. But I was wrong; no one deserves having to put up with you."

Elena felt her heart plummet as she flinched back from the words that he spat at her. Tears began to well up in her eyes and her throat went completely dry. All that she could do was stand there and try to blink back the tears as he walked away.

Elena wiped the side of her face as she felt the traitorous tears beginning to fall. She looked around to find several sets of eyes focused on her.

Elena turned, fighting for air as she pushed her way through the people towards the front door.

* * *

Once outside, she managed to walk a few dozen yards away before she collapsed against one of the old trees in the Lockwood yard as a fit of tears took over her.

* * *

Damon hated himself. He hated himself more than he thought that he could ever hate anything. More than he hated his father. Because his father had been right about him, Damon Salvatore was a horrible person who ruined the lives of all of those around him.

He had wanted to tell Elena the truth, to apologize. Instead he had thought to himself about how terrible he was for her and the Damon from two months before had returned to the surface. Besides, he was already angry enough about the whispers and pointing as more and more people heard about his outburst in the hallway earlier that day. It hadn't been exactly difficult for him to act out against someone who cared about him. Hell, it came all too naturally to Damon.

* * *

Rebekah laughed at Matt's joke loudly, tilting her head back as she did so.

As she started to regain control over her laughter, Matt suddenly leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers.

Rebekah pressed her lips back and just as the kiss began to intensify, Matt jerked away.

When Matt saw the hurt and confused look in Rebekah's eyes he frowned and said, "Sorry. It's not you, I swear. It's just..."

Matt trailed off and for just the shortest of seconds his eyes involuntarily flickered over to where Stefan stood talking to Jeremy and Bonnie.

"...Not the same as kissing Stefan..." Rebekah finished for him.

For a second Matt looked a little alarmed, but then he simply said, "Yeah... Look, I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have-"

Rebekah cut him off by pressing a finger to his lips.

"You stop apologizing," She said. "If you really want to make me feel better, then you'll march over there and kiss him before he gets interested in someone else and you've missed your chance."

"I don't know, it's just-" Matt didn't know how to explain it. It was like it was one thing for him to be okay with the idea of Stefan being gay, but it was an entirely different thing for him to adjust to the idea of himself being gay. "I don't know if I'm-"

"Stop trying to figure out whether you're into guys or girls or what," Rebekah said. "All that matters is whether you're into him. Do you have feelings for Stefan that are stronger than friendship?"

"Yeah, bu-" Matt tried again.

"No buts," Rebekah told him. "You just told me your answer."

* * *

"That was a bit obvious, don't you think?" Klaus asked Caroline. "The whole dancing thing."

"I was dancing with my friend to help cheer her up, don't read into it," Caroline told him.

"A tease is a tease is a tease," Klaus whispered in her ear before walking away, leaving Caroline with her arms crossed looking less than impressed.

"Hey, did you hear about Damon Salvatore?" A drunk girl a few feet away from Caroline asked her friend in the tone of a pure gossip.

"The thing in the hallway today? Yeah," The other girl said back quieter. "I kind of feel bad for him."

"What thing in the hallway?" Caroline asked, taking a few steps towards the pair.

* * *

As Elena heard footsteps approaching, she couldn't calm herself down so instead she continued to blubber hysterically. She figured that it was probably just Caroline chasing after her to try to make her feel better anyways.

"If daddy's little punching bag doesn't want you, then I'd be glad to take you for a ride."

Elena looked up at Tyler in shock and anger. Had he just said what she had thought he had? How did Tyler know about Damon's dad?

"Go away," Elena said, standing up to try and make herself look a little more intimidating.

"Why? I thought that maybe we could get to know each other a little better," Tyler said, chugging the last of his beer out of his plastic red cup before crumpling it up and throwing it on the ground.

"I said go away," Elena said in a threatening tone, finally managing to stop crying.

"Or what?" Tyler asked in a tone that Elena thought had been supposed to be playful as he headed closer.

Elena went to take a step backwards, but tripped over a root of the tree that she had been crying against. She fell back, cracking her head on the trunk.

* * *

Matt had just gathered up his courage and he headed over to Stefan, feeling his heart pounding in his chest as he did so.

Once he was standing behind him, Matt grabbed Stefan's shoulder and pulled back to turn him around.

Stefan turned around and opened his mouth, about to ask something. He never did get the chance to ask it though, since Matt's mouth was on his before he could get a single sound out. Matt grabbed onto Stefan's face with both hands, holding him close.

Stefan hesitated in shock for the briefest of seconds before he began to kiss back aggressively, wrapping his arms around Matt's neck to pull him even closer.

Caroline and Bonnie cheered loudly, and before long others began to join in.

When the kiss finally broke, several very long seconds later, Matt's hands still remained on Stefan's face as he said, "Sorry for taking so long to catch up. I'm a little slow. It must be the jock brain."

* * *

"Hey, have any of you guys seen Elena?" Jeremy asked the rest of his friends, beginning to worry as he realized that he hadn't seen her for quite a while.

His question was met with a chorus of noes in return.

"I'm going to go look for her," Jeremy said as he turned to walk away. "Tell me if you see her."

The rest of them began to look around, wondering where she had snuck off to and when.

As Jeremy searched for his sister, he spotted Damon out of the corner of his eye and felt a surge of rage take over him.

"Look, I know that you have a busy schedule of being a total asshole," Jeremy said as he headed over towards Damon. "But can you just answer one question for me?"

Damon, who didn't exactly appreciate being interrupted from sitting alone and wallowing in his self-pity, turned his head up to look at Elena's twin and growled out, "I thought that I made the memo pretty clear to your sister that I'm not exactly in a question answering mood."

"So then you've seen her," Jeremy said, feeling a wave of relief wash over him. "Thank god."

Damon cocked his head to the side and frowned, his forehead crinkling in confusion as he did so.

"Why is that a good thing?" Damon asked. "It wasn't exactly lately. What, you can't find her?"

A pit formed in Damon's stomach as he had a gnawing feeling that something was very, very wrong.

"Nobody's seen her since she was dancing with Caroline," Jeremy said. "If you see her can you take two seconds out of being a douche to tell me?"

"I'll go check outside for her," Damon said, all of the anger and threat out of his tone.

Before Jeremy had the chance to respond to Damon's surprising one hundred and eighty degree change in attitude, Damon was already gone.

* * *

Damon stepped out the front door and looked around as his eyes adjusted to the dark. He didn't see anyone.

He walked a few yards in each direction with no luck and was just about to give up and go back inside to look there, when he heard something that made his heart drop.

"I said get off of me!"

It was Elena's voice, shouting desperately.

"Elena?" Damon called out loudly, his voice filled with concern.

"Damon!" Elena yelled as loud as she could so that he would be able to find her.

Elena didn't care if Damon hated her; he was her only hope at that point.

Damon began to run as fast as he could towards the area that the sound had come from.

When Elena finally was in his sight, Damon found her pinned to a tree by Tyler who was trying to jam his tongue down her throat and take her shirt off at the same time. Elena was thrashing at him as hard as she could, desperately and hopelessly trying to escape his grasp. Damon felt sick as he registered the blood that was coming from her head.

"Get the hell off of her before I break your fucking neck!" Damon growled in the most furious and animalistic tone that Elena had ever heard him use.

"Calm down, I was just trying to have a little fun," Tyler chuckled, stopping his attempts to take her shirt off as he turned to face Damon. His grasp still kept Elena pinned back against the tree.

"You call this fun?" Damon asked angrily. "I'm giving you one last chance. Leave now before I bash your head in."

"Whatever, you can have her," Tyler said, tossing Elena roughly to the ground. "She's a total prude anyways."

Damon didn't have much trouble resisting the urge to go over to Tyler to beat the living shit out of him; the urge to help Elena was a lot stronger and made it so that he ran to where she lay on the ground without an instant's hesitation.

Elena was wincing in pain as fresh tears prickled at her eyes, fighting to join the old ones that still stained her face.

"Are you alright?" Damon asked worriedly, sitting at her side. "..That was a stupid question, of course you aren't alright. You're bleeding from the head and Tyler Lockwood just tried to rape you. Why would I even ask that?"

"I landed on my wrist funny," Elena said, leaning to get all of her weight off of her right wrist and onto her left one and Damon's chest.

Damon helped her to lean back against the tree and then ripped his shirt off of over his head, balled it up, and held it to the large wound on the back of Elena's head. She winced a little once again as the fabric touched the open gash.

"I'm so sorry," Damon told her, tears beginning to form in his eyes as well.

Once he had her balanced so that she didn't have any weight on her bad wrist and so that he could hold the fabric to her head with the right amount of pressure using only one hand, he used the other to pull his cell phone out of the pocket of his jeans.

First he called for an ambulance, and then once he had hung up from that call, he quickly dialed Alaric's number.

As soon as Damon heard the click that meant that Alaric had picked the phone up, he began to speak without waiting for the other man to answer.

"I swear I wouldn't be calling if this wasn't important, Ric," Damon said in a rush. "I think I already did enough damage to your relationship without this. But you really need to get here. Like now. And bring Jenna with you."

"Why, what happened?" Alaric asked, the concern was as clear in his voice as panic had been in Damon's tone.

"Elena's hurt and I swear to god I am two seconds from murdering Tyler Lockwood with my bare hands." Damon growled into the phone. "There's an ambulance on the way now."

"I'll be there soon," Alaric said before hanging up the phone.

Damon tried Jeremy's number, but there was no answer. He probably couldn't hear his phone over the loud music inside.

"Goddammit!" Damon muttered under his breath.

Elena felt herself getting dizzy from the loss of blood as she blinked up at Damon.

"Why are you so upset?" She asked, genuinely meaning the question. "I thought that you hated me." There was no challenge in her tone; she really had believed that he had been telling her the truth when he had said that he hated her.

"I don't hate you," He said, hugging her closer to his chest as he stared into her eyes. "I never did. And I could never, ever hate you, okay?"

His tone demanded that she listen and understand, as if her survival depended upon knowing that he could not and would not ever hate her.

"Okay," Elena agreed.

* * *

Alaric and Jenna showed up less than five minutes later, the restaurant they had been at was a lot closer than the hospital where the ambulance had left from.

"Can you take her?" Damon asked Alaric as he walked over. Damon felt his heart break at the sight of Elena's look of fear at the idea of him leaving. "I have to go find Jeremy. He was looking for her and he should know..." Elena looked up at him with pleading eyes; she wanted someone else to go get Jeremy.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Alaric said, crouching down next to Elena while Jenna stood, staring at the state of her injured niece in shock.

"I'll be right back," Damon promised Elena as he handed her over to Ric.

Damon got up and headed back towards the front door.

* * *

As he walked in, he completely ignored the looks that people were giving him as he walked through the room covered in someone else's blood and without a shirt on. He really couldn't give a shit about what any of them thought at that point. All he cared about was finding Jeremy Gilbert.

As Damon walked through the house searching, someone reached out a hand to his chest and stopped him.

"Damon, what the hell?" Stefan asked, looking up at him with concern.

"It's not my blood," Damon said in a tone that was less than reassuring. "Look I just really need to find-" He cut himself off as he spotted exactly who he was looking for standing halfway across the room. "Never mind."

Damon pushed past his brother and headed towards Jeremy.

"I found her," Damon told him.

"Is that her-" Jeremy began to ask, but couldn't get the question out.

"Yeah," Damon said, shifting uncomfortably. "I found Tyler trying to force himself on her. She's outside with Ric and Jenna and an ambulance is on the way. Come on."

Jeremy didn't need any more prompting than that to follow the older boy.

As they maneuvered their way through the crowd and back towards the front of the house, they heard a smug voice behind them.

"Your sister tasted good, Gilbert," Tyler taunted. They could hear the smirk in his voice despite the fact that he was standing behind them.

Jeremy's hand balled up into a fist and he turned angrily, ready to fight.

"Don't," Damon said, grabbing Jeremy's shoulder before he could hit Tyler. "He's not worth it, don't give him the satisfaction."

"Speaking of satisfaction-"

Jeremy made another move to hit Tyler, but Damon grabbed him and pulled him back once again.

Damon spun Jeremy to look at him, his hands on each of the other boy's shoulders, as he told him, "He's just trying to get a reaction out of you. If you hit him, he wins. Come on, your sister needs you. Are you really going to waste your time on a waste of space like him?"

Jeremy shot Tyler one last glare before turning back towards the door.

"What's the matter, you too bitch to defend your sister?" Tyler challenged.

"Just ignore him," Damon told Jeremy as he wrapped his arm around Jeremy's shoulders and led him forward.

They headed out the front door, Tyler following shortly behind with a constant string of attempts at provoking the other two boys.

The pair had almost reached Elena when Damon couldn't listen to Tyler's constant shots at Jeremy for any longer.

"Leave him alone." Damon threatened through gritted teeth as he spun around on his heel and took a few steps closer to Tyler.

"What, are you going to be the Gilbert protector?" Tyler asked. "Are  _you_  going to fight me? Or are you just going to sit there and ignore me and show just how weak you are to all of them."

"I'm not going to fight you," Damon told him.

"Oh come on, I'll even give you the first hit," Tyler offered.

"I said I'm not hitting you," Damon said. "Even if you do deserve it."

"Oh, I see," Tyler said, a smirk growing on his face. "You're trying to take the high road to make New Daddy proud so that maybe he'll love you the way that Old Daddy never did. That way maybe New Daddy won't hit you."

Alaric found himself balling his hands up into fists to keep himself from hitting a teenager as he watched from where he sat holding Elena.

"I'm not going to hit you because I don't need to prove anything to you," Damon spit into the other teen's face. "If I fight and I beat you up, you win because you successfully provoked me. If I fight you and you beat me up, you provoked me and won. If I don't fight you then you're stuck here making an ass out of yourself and I win. Besides, I know that I'd beat you. I don't need to fight you to prove it. I think that I'll stick to winning, thanks."

Tyler chuckled for a second and then punched Damon in the face, hard.

Damon grabbed his cheek where he had been punched and looked into Tyler's eyes for a second longer before turning away and muttering, "You're pathetic."

"No wonder your dad beat you all the time. Clearly you could have stopped it, but you were just too pussy to do anything about it," Tyler called after him.

Damon continued to walk, closing his eyes for a second and taking a deep breath to stop himself from doing something that he would regret afterwards.

"You know I should have done this a long time ago."

Damon turned around to see that Stefan had walked up behind Tyler at some point.

Stefan grabbed Tyler by the shoulder and spun him around, punching him hard enough to send him toppling to the ground.


	19. Chapter 19

Damon Salvatore sat up on the couch that had become his bed with the light on; he was wide awake and constantly fidgeting.

"Did you get a reply yet?" Damon asked for the hundredth time within a span of less than five minutes.

"No." Alaric and Stefan said in perfect unison.

Damon continued to fidget.

"...Still nothing?" Damon asked after a few seconds.

"No!" The pair answered once again.

"If you're so concerned, then why don't you try texting?" Alaric asked.

"I can't," Damon said.

"Why not?" Stefan asked.

"Because," Damon said, unable to explain his reasoning to them.

Alaric's phone beeped, notifying him that he had a new text.

Damon was thrilled both for the idea of news and the distraction.

"What does it say? Is she alright?" Damon asked before Alaric even had the chance to pick his phone up.

Alaric quickly read through the text, before looking up and saying, "They gave her stitches in the back of her head and a cast. Apparently she broke her wrist when she fell on it-"

"You mean Tyler broke her wrist when he threw her back onto it," Damon hissed angrily. "What else does it say?"

"She's going to be fine. They're taking her home now," Alaric told him.

Stefan's phone pinged a moment later and Damon turned to him with expectant eyes, "What does yours say?"

"I'm fine thanks. I'll explain tomorrow or ask Alaric, Jenna said she texted him the details," Stefan read out loud.

"That's it?" Damon asked, continuing to drive them insane with his fidgeting.

"You're the one who found her, it's reasonable for you to be concerned," Stefan pointed out. "It's not like sending her a single text means that you have to get back together."

"I said that I can't." Damon said sternly.

"We should probably go to bed," Alaric said. "It's late and it doesn't look like we're going to find anything else out until tomorrow morning anyways. At least we know that she's alright now."

"I don't want to get some sleep," Damon argued.

"He's right, Damon," Stefan tried.

"Do I look like I'm in any state to sleep?" Damon questioned his brother. "I can't just sleep after that. There's no point in even trying."

Damon needed to see Elena and confirm for himself that she was really okay. But he couldn't, even if he wasn't trying to stay away from her for her own good, he couldn't just show up there at four in the morning just because she had gotten out of the hospital.

"What's going on with this whole 'breaking up with her, but not really even telling her that it's happening and suddenly avoiding her like the plague and pretending to hate her to her face while all you do is sit around and mope over her or worry about her' thing, Damon?" Stefan asked. "Help me understand what the hell your logic is here."

"Ric's right. It's late, we should at least try to sleep," Damon said in an emotionless tone. He was nowhere near ready to try and explain what he was doing and why to anyone, including Stefan.

"That's nice, deflecting from questions," Stefan muttered under his breath. "Maybe you're just reverting into asshole mode is the problem."

Stefan instantly began to feel bad once the words had been said. Damon was already having a rough enough night before he had started pushing it and the look of misery on Damon's face was far from the arrogant smirk of douchebag Damon.

"You can ask me about anything else and I swear I'll answer," Damon said in a small voice as he looked down at nothing. "I'm just not ready to talk about Elena yet."

"Okay," Stefan agreed. What else could he say when his brother sounded so goddamn broken and was practically begging him to drop it while trying not to lose his trust.

"Thanks," Damon murmured as Alaric and Stefan headed out of the room.

Alaric turned the light out on his way out of the room. As he walked towards his room, he wondered when his life had become so difficult.

He didn't want to go back to the obliviousness, but it broke his heart watching the boys' pain. Especially Damon's since there was so much.

Alaric felt bad leaving Damon alone, but at the same time Damon had said that he didn't want to talk about it and had basically sent them out of the room saying that he wanted to try to sleep. Even if it was a lie, clearly he had wanted them out of the room.

Although Alaric kept telling himself that, it didn't make it any easier for him to sleep. It didn't make him feel any better as he tried to figure out what he was going to do about having the boys stay with him and with whatever was going on with Damon.

After a while of tossing and turning, Alaric finally decided that he would get up and go find something to eat.

Alaric walked as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake up Damon if he had actually managed to fall asleep.

"You couldn't sleep either?" Damon asked as Alaric entered the living room on his way to the kitchen.

"No," Alaric answered.

"It's funny, usually what I do when something's bothering me is ignore it and sleep," Damon said. "I'm not used to the whole not being able to sleep thing. Sleep's all that I'm good at usually."

Alaric didn't enjoy Damon's use of 'all that I'm good at'.

"Are you going to go see her tomorrow?" Alaric asked, although he was pretty sure that he already knew the answer before even asking.

"No, I can't," Damon replied as he sat up.

"Why not?" Alaric asked.

Damon hadn't expected that. He had become used to Alaric being the one who didn't push for answers or explanations. He usually waited for Damon to tell him in his own time. Was it really that off that even Alaric was questioning it?

"It's hard to explain," Damon said. "And I know that if I do that no one will understand it. Everybody's too busy trying to make me fit into their idea of how I should be that they completely ignore how I really am. And when I don't fit their expectations, they're disappointed in me for not being someone else. I'm sick of trying to be good enough, to be what others think that I am and I'm sick of letting everybody down. And it's like there are two versions of me, the Damon that everyone got used to during the last few weeks and the Damon I was before Elena came back. I don't even know which one is me anymore. At least when I was douchebag Damon, nobody expected anything out of me. But now everyone expects the best out of me and I can't handle it. It's way easier to have them expect disappointment and surprise them every once in a while than to be good and surprise them with the disappointment. ...I just wish that I could be normal."

Alaric chuckled a little, "There's nothing more normal for a teenager than not knowing who you are, feeling pressure, and wanting to be normal. And isn't it better to have people think of you as a good person who makes mistakes sometimes than having them think of you as an asshole who occasionally shows a redeeming quality?"

"At least you don't have to see the look of disappointment if they expect you to be terrible," Damon pointed out. "Stefan was a lot less disappointed before I started turning back to normal. He was used to the disappointment, but then the little rays of hope dug the knife in deeper. And now I'm the disappointment of a brother all over again."

"He doesn't think you're a disappointment of a brother, he just doesn't understand what's going on with you. No one does," Alaric said.

"Yeah, I'm not so sure that I fully understand either," Damon commented.

* * *

The next day when Elena woke up at around noon, she found that there was a new text waiting for her.

* * *

**From Caroline:**

_Call me when you're up._

* * *

Elena quickly dialed Caroline's number as she got out of her bed, wincing a little as a shooting pain went through the back of her head.

"You're awake!" Caroline answered cheerily.

"Yeah," Elena said and then chuckled a little. "I don't usually get a cheer for getting up."

"How are you today?" Caroline asked, her voice laced with concern. "What happened at the hospital?"

"I got stitches on my head and a cast for my broken wrist," Elena answered. "And it hurts, but it's not so bad. I just got up though, so I don't really know."

"So much for the emergency sleepover last night," Caroline commented.

"Sorry," Elena told her.

"It wasn't your fault," Caroline told her. "So don't apologize or else I'll break your other arm."

"Thanks," Elena said sarcastically, although she found herself laughing at her friends joke. "Ow."

"What?" Caroline asked worriedly.

"Nothing. Laughing just hurt my head, I'm fine now," Elena told her as she headed out of her room and towards the staircase.

"You'd better be," Caroline warned her. "So has Damon texted or anything since you left in the ambulance?"

"Nope," Elena said, her tone filled with exasperation. "Alaric texted Jenna and Stefan texted me, but nothing from Damon. God forbid that he shows even the slightest concern."

Elena had reached the bottom of the stairs and headed towards the kitchen where Jenna was sitting at the kitchen table with Jeremy and Alaric.

"I don't know what his problem is," Caroline said. "I mean I saw the panic on his face when he was looking for Jeremy. That was not the facial expression of a boy who doesn't care about you."

"I've got to go, I'll talk to you later," Elena said, knowing that if she didn't make it sound somewhat urgent that she would never get off of the phone with Caroline.

"Look who's up!" Jenna said a little too excitedly.

"You made lunch?" Elena asked with an eyebrow raise.

"Not exactly," Jenna responded.

"Alaric made it and she watched," Jeremy answered for her.

"How's the head?" Jenna asked.

"Well it's been better," Elena responded, receiving a reaction that wasn't nearly as amused as she had been going for.

"He is concerned," Alaric told her since he had overheard the end of Elena's phone call to Caroline. "He might not have texted, but he drove us insane asking us whether we had an answer yet every six milliseconds. He couldn't even sit still and even after we got your texts he couldn't sleep. And while I'm here, I'm supposed to find out how you're feeling for Damon, but I'm not supposed to tell you that I'm finding out for him or that he was asking."

"Then why are you telling me all of this if you aren't supposed to?" Elena asked, although she felt a million times better knowing that Damon was worried about her, even if he was too stubborn to admit it in even the slightest way.

"I have no idea what's going on with the breakup and everything. I just figured that you deserved to know," Alaric told her. "And he couldn't give one good reason for why he couldn't ask himself or show that he was concerned. All he said was that he couldn't. I could think of a few good reasons that you should know that he is concerned so those won."

Elena sat down at the table and began to awkwardly grab some food with her left hand.

* * *

As the day progressed, Elena quickly discovered that there was a lot of stuff that she couldn't do while using only her one hand, especially since it wasn't her dominant one. She also quickly discovered that Jenna and Jeremy were far too quick to aggressively help, even with the things that Elena could do on her own.

* * *

A while later as Elena grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge, both Jeremy and Jenna instantly whipped their heads around to see what she was doing.

"Do you want me to open that?" Jeremy asked her.

"No, I can do it," Elena insisted.

"Here, just let me help you," Jenna said, getting up from the couch.

"I said that I can do it myself," Elena responded. "Look I like that you guys are helping me, but if I can do something by myself, then I really would rather you just let me do it myself. I don't need you guys constantly hovering over me waiting to stop me before I do anything so that you can do it for me."

"Alright, fine," Jenna said, sitting back down, but still watching Elena warily.

Elena balanced the bottle between her right arm and her chest as she attempted to twist the lid with her left hand. After a few minutes of struggling as an amused Jenna and Jeremy watched her, Elena was about to give up and walked over to get help as a disappointed look on her face.

"Can I open that?" Alaric asked. "I bet that you can, but I just have this weird bottle opening fetish. It's some weird guy thing where I feel the need to show off my strength by opening things."

"If you want to that bad," Elena said, glad that Alaric was saving her from having to ask Jenna or Jeremy for help and face the consequences of refusing their help angrily and then needing it right afterwards.

Alaric got up from the spot where he had been sitting next to Jenna on the couch, and walked over and grabbed the bottle that Elena had been holding outstretched to him.

Alaric put his hand on the lid and began to twist, not actually twisting the cap, but trying to twist the entire top of the bottle.

Only Elena could tell that he was just pretending to not be able to open it. The other two were too far away to be able to tell.

Alaric changed his grip on the bottle and 'struggled' for a few minutes longer before finally managing to twist the cap off of the bottle.

"No wonder you couldn't get it open," Alaric said seriously. "I could barely get it open with two hands."

"Thanks," Elena said as she took the open bottle back from him. The thanks wasn't only for getting the drink open for her.

"Thank you for feeding my fetish," Alaric said.

"Things that you shouldn't say to teenage girls," Elena said with a smirk.

"Yeah, that really would not be a good thing for people to overhear," Alaric agreed.

Elena took one of the prescription pain killers that she had been given the night before at the hospital with her water before successfully closing it with one hand.

"I'm going to go lay down," Elena said, feeling exhausted.

* * *

As the weekend went on, Damon continued to worry about Elena while trying to pretend that he wasn't. He didn't text her or go see her, instead he sat at home torturing himself and waiting to see her in passing on Monday.

* * *

On Sunday, Elena found out from Caroline that she had missed Matt kissing Stefan at the party when she had been outside. Elena decided that she would have to get the pair to re-enact it for her at some point.

* * *

When Monday did come around, Elena wanted to search for Damon before first class, but had been too busy being asked about her injuries.

The first time that Elena saw Damon wasn't until lunchtime.

* * *

When Matt and Stefan entered the cafeteria together, in both meanings of the word, Tyler didn't say a single word. Maybe he had gotten bored, or maybe he didn't want to mock his ex-best friend, or maybe Klaus's scene at the party had taught him a lesson or at least made him decide to stop.

When Elena walked into the cafeteria with Bonnie, Tyler instantly turned around to whistle at her as she walked by.

Elena kept walking, but Bonnie stopped and grabbed him by the hair.

"Stay the hell away from her," Bonnie said before releasing her grip, pushing his head forward hard, before walking away.

Elena sat down next to Caroline, on the opposite side of her than Klaus was on, and Bonnie followed shortly behind to sit on Elena's other side.

* * *

Damon hadn't seen Elena yet and he knew that he couldn't spend the rest of the year hiding in Alaric's room to avoid her at lunch, so he decided to return to the cafeteria once again at lunchtime.

Damon walked through the cafeteria with his head down, avoiding the whispers about his father that were coming from his fellow students.

He took the open seat that was the farthest away from Elena as possible, sitting next to Stefan on the opposite side of Matt at the edge of the table. Damon felt a little bad for never even talking about what had happened between Matt and Stefan at the party, but his mind had been a little preoccupied worrying about Elena.

Damon had been keeping his eyes down until he was sitting down, then he had to look up and see it. See what Tyler had done to Elena.

Damon put on his best angered stone face before lifting his head. The look disappeared as soon as soon as his gaze met hers; it was replaced with a much more gentle look of shock and sorrow and he just couldn't look away.

He had known that she'd had a cast on her wrist, that hadn't been what had shocked him. It was the bruises along her arms where Tyler had been gripping her and the bruise along her jaw that she had tried to cover up with makeup. That he never would have been able to see if he hadn't been scanning Elena's skin thoroughly looking for even the slightest sign of damage.

Damon couldn't handle being there anymore. He couldn't handle the pure rage that was growing in him as he saw what Tyler Lockwood had done to the girl that couldn't deserve it any less.

Damon's hands formed into fists that he slammed down on the table with a look of anger as he ripped his eyes from Elena. Damon pushed himself up and stormed out of the cafeteria, abandoning his lunch as he did so.

The table turned to watch the cafeteria doors slam shut behind him in confusion.

"What was that about?" Rebekah asked, turning to Stefan for answers.

"I have no idea," Stefan said, trying to decide whether or not to go after his brother.

Finally Stefan decided not to, since if it had anything to do with Elena, Damon wouldn't want to talk about it. And if Damon wanted him out there with him, he would text him.

* * *

Damon took a few steps into the empty hallway, before slamming his fist into a nearby locker.

All that accomplished was denting the locker and cutting open his knuckles. It didn't make any of it better. It didn't make life any easier. It didn't give Tyler Lockwood the punishment that he deserved and it didn't undo any of what had happened to Elena. Tyler had still attacked her and she had still made the mistake of falling for a loser like him.

* * *

When Tyler Lockwood walked into history class, Elena was already seated next to Stefan. Tyler stopped for a second at the front of the room to grin at Elena and send her a wink.

"Tyler, hallway. Now." Alaric told him.

Tyler rolled his eyes and walked back out the door with Alaric shortly behind him.

"So what, now I'm not even allowed to look at people?" Tyler asked. "Since when is it against school rules to smile at other students? I thought that you would be happy that I was being friendly."

Alaric couldn't stand the arrogant look on Tyler's face.

"Don't you dare play the innocent act after what happened on Friday. You are damn lucky that Elena isn't pressing charges against you," Alaric growled. "Here's the deal. You're going to stay away from Elena. You aren't going to so much as glance in her general direction or I while personally make sure that you get kicked out of this school. Maybe you can't technically get in trouble just for looking or smiling at other students. But we both know that you aren't the most well-behaved student. Eventually you will screw up and I will be ready for it when it comes. It won't be too hard to convince them to expel a student with grades and a track record like yours."

"Whatever," Tyler muttered with an eye roll as he pushed past Alaric to return to the classroom.

That time he didn't even chance a peek at Elena. Instead he walked to his seat, staring at the opposite wall as he did so.

* * *

Tyler's good behaviour didn't last long though. As Elena went to walk into the gym for her last class of the day, Tyler made a point of saying, "I guess you'll have to use your mouth tonight if you're down a hand."

Elena ignored him and continued to walk into the gym.

"He's an ass," Rebekah, who had been standing just inside the gym, said to Elena. Her accent made it come out as 'arse'.

"Yeah, and I thought that he was going to leave me alone after Alaric said something to him in the hallway, but it turns out that it was just temporary. Very temporary," Elena responded.

"Well maybe I'll take a try at stopping him," Rebekah said, her face suddenly becoming thoughtful.

"Good luck with that," Elena said sarcastically. "Others have tried with little to no success."

"Yeah, but they didn't have an idea as good as mine," Rebekah said smugly.

"Which is?" Elena asked.

"You'll see," Rebekah said with a smirk before turning to head towards the girl's change room.

Elena headed towards the gym office to talk to the teacher about her inability to participate.

* * *

After an hour of sitting on the bleachers while she watched her classmates play badminton, the school day was finally over.

Jeremy drove them home and then Elena started doing her homework, which was a relatively large amount since she'd had to get someone else to write for her. As she worked, Jenna became her scribe.

Once her homework was done, there was still a little too much night left.

Elena sat around for a few minutes in her thoughts as she debated what she should do. Finally she decided to try to text Damon in case he was just waiting for her to text first so that it would be okay for him to ask about her.

* * *

**From Elena:**

_So what's going on now? Are you going back to ignoring me and pretending to hate me even though I know that it isn't true after everything Friday night and that look today at lunch?_

* * *

Damon stared down at her phone for a few long seconds, reading the text over and over, before exiting out of the text, locking his phone, and putting it back into his pocket.

* * *

On Tuesday morning, the principal arrived in Alaric's classroom a few minutes before the first bell.

"I need to talk to you in my office, now."

It wasn't a question. Alaric imagined that if Principal Sonortan had arrived when Alaric had a class, that there would have been a series of "ooooh" and "you're in trouble"s from the students.

The pair walked towards the office in a less than comfortable silence.

Sonortan was already a serious enough man on his good days, and when he wanted to be he could be downright terrifying to most of the students.

A feeling of extreme unease surrounded Alaric as he noticed that Principal Sonortan was sporting the look of intimidation that was usually reserved for the absolute worst of the worst offences.

Once they had entered, Sonortan sat down in the cushioned chair behind his desk and then gestured for Alaric to sit down in the chair across from him.

"You should take a seat," He said. "I don't think this is going to be very brief."

He waited until Alaric was seated before continuing to talk.

"I've been hearing a lot of talk about an incident that occurred on Friday. One that I can't just ignore," Principal Sonortan began.

Alaric knew exactly the incident that was being referred to, Damon announcing the truth for everyone to hear.

"I've heard that one of your students publicly admitted to living with a father who physically abused him," Sonortan continued. "I also that heard that you were aware of his conditions and neglected to report them. You've been allowing it to continue without so much as a single action against it."

"I'm sorry, but that is bullshit," Alaric said. "I haven't just been sitting here watching it happen, I've been helping Damon. And Stefan too."

"As a teacher, you have a legal responsibility to notify the authorities of suspected child abuse. You didn't do that." Sonortan said in his strictest tone as he cut Alaric's argument off. "Or am I wrong in saying that?"

The last question had been meant to shut Alaric up and have him sit quietly and listen to the consequences, but it actually had the reverse effect on the man.

"Actually you are," Alaric said.

"Really?" Sonortan asked skeptically. He raised an eyebrow at Alaric and shot him a clearly unimpressed look. "Enlighten me on how exactly I'm wrong."

"Gladly," Alaric told him. "In this state while I may be legally required to report it, I'm also not legally required to include my name in the report. Check, I guarantee that you'll find that there was in fact an anonymous report made. I may not have reported it in the most ideal of ways, but I did report it."

The meeting lasted for a while longer. Although Alaric wasn't completely off the hook, he certainly was in a better condition than he had been when he had first entered Sonortan's office. Before Alaric was allowed to leave, Sonortan had told him that he couldn't just keep having the pair of boys live with him forever, that he had to figure out what he was going to do about them.

That pissed Alaric off, why couldn't he keep them? He knew that it may not be logical to be mad at Sonortan for pointing out the truth, but Alaric didn't understand why they couldn't just stay with him when they were better off there anyways. And they liked it there, he liked having them around. They had already grown used to having each other around.

That was when Alaric decided that, as long as Stefan and Damon wanted him to, he would do whatever he could to legally adopt them.

Alaric had placed a call to submit an anonymous report the morning after the night where he had found out about Damon. He had promised Damon that he wouldn't tell anyone to gain his trust, but he also knew that he had to do something about it. When he had seen fresh bruises on Damon and ones on Stefan as well later that day, he decided that he needed to take larger measures to help them so he had given them his phone number.

It was a good thing that he had, since no one had seemed to have done any investigating whatsoever after his report. He wasn't sure if a copy of his report was misplaced or if they were just busy, but he certainly hadn't heard anything about an investigation until Sonortan had said that he'd had one arranged. Apparently in that case using an anonymous call hadn't been as effective as having an educational professional report it.

* * *

During the week, Damon and Stefan were both called down separately to speak to someone about their father and what their living conditions had been like. Alaric had also spoken to them, and even Elena had been spoken to since she had known and had seen some of the injuries that had been caused.

The investigator also visited Guiseppe in the home multiple times at various hours of the day to find him drunk and surrounded by empty bottles at all hours. When asked about his children, Guiseppe had nothing nice to say about them. On one of the occasions, he had drank enough that when asked whether he had ever hit his children he had responded with, "Yeah, I smacked the boy around. But he needed it. How's a screw-up ever going to learn if someone doesn't step in and teach him a lesson?"

Needless to say, it hadn't taken long for the caseworker to come to a conclusion that Guiseppe Salvatore was an unfit parent.

* * *

On Tuesday, Elena passed by Tyler in the hallway multiple times throughout the morning and whenever she did, he had averted his gaze and walked faster.

When she walked into the cafeteria at lunch time, Tyler continued to stare at his lunch and remained silent as she passed by.

"What did you do?" Elena asked Rebekah with a grin as she sat down.

"I went to the one person that Tyler Lockwood is afraid of," Rebekah responded with a smirk. "Daddy Lockwood. Let's just say that he was less than impressed with the fact that his son had thrown a party while he was out of town. And he was even less impressed when he found out about his son's behaviour. In fact he was completely embarrassed by his son's behaviour and apologized on behalf of him right before he said that Tyler would not be getting away with it so easily. And then there was something about taking his car away and cutting him off…"

"You are a genius," Elena told her.

"I'm not denying it," Rebekah said with a grin.

* * *

Damon was confused when he walked into the cafeteria to find Elena and Rebekah acting all buddy buddy.

Damon sat down in the same spot as the day before. He managed to make it through the lunch hour without any outbursts or storming out, but he also didn't chance a single glance in Elena's direction and didn't say a single word throughout the entire hour.

* * *

During history Tyler continued to avoid all interaction and eye contact with Elena. He spent a good portion of the class just staring out the window at the rain so that no one would think that he was looking towards Elena.

* * *

As Elena sat on the bleachers she was bored out of her mind. That was until the fire alarm went off, practically deafening her.

The class headed out the nearest emergency exit and met by the fence that was a few yards away from the exit so that the teacher could take attendance and tell them that it was a planned fire drill.

No one was very pleased with the rain, especially not the gym class that was outside in the cold rain wearing only shorts and t-shirts. Elena wasn't much better off in her t-shirt and jeans.

Elena turned to look around at the nearby classes and was surprised to find Damon was leaving the area where the rest of Alaric's class was standing, and he was headed straight towards here.

He stopped right in front of her and removed his leather jacket before holding it out to her, his facial expression one of pure ice.

"Here," He said after a few seconds of her just staring at him in disbelief. "Take it."

"Okay, so let me get this straight," Elena said. "You don't care about me at all. In fact you hate me. Except for that whole part where you could never hate me. But you can't even stand to look at me or be in the same general area as me. And you're refusing to give me even one reason for why we broke up or why you're acting this way, but you expect me to take your jacket just so that you can feel a little bit better about yourself and pretend that you aren't a total dick. No thanks."

"You're getting your cast wet, moron," Damon said, giving up on trying to hand the jacket over and physically sliding it around her shoulders for her.

Elena glared at him, but she didn't push the jacket off, instead she tucked her cast into the front and used her free hand to hold to the front shut.

Damon rolled his eyes and reached forward to do the zipper up in front of her injured wrist so that the cast was covered from the rain.

"You seriously can't just have one conversation with me?" Elena asked, staring him in the eyes as he released his grip on the zipper and backed up a few steps. "Don't you think that I at least deserve even the slightest explanation?"

"Rebekah looks lonely. You should go keep her company now that you two are friends again," Damon said before turning and walking away.

Elena frowned, but turned around to head over to Rebekah none the less.

For someone who pretended to not care and not want to deal with her anymore, he sure seemed to be trying awfully hard to keep up with current news about her. Getting Alaric and Stefan to ask about her injuries, clearly watching her if he knew that she was getting along with Rebekah once again.

"He gave me his jacket, but he's still refusing to talk to me and trying to pretend that he couldn't care less," Elena told Rebekah. "I just don't understand what the hell he's trying to do and it's driving me insane."

"Well if he doesn't want to talk, then maybe you don't want to give him his jacket back," Rebekah suggested.

Elena frowned. She didn't like the immaturity of the plan, but it was getting to the point where immaturity was the only chance that she had of ever getting any answers. She was strongly beginning to debate stooping to that level.

* * *

Damon swore under his breath as Elena and Rebekah walked back into the school with his jacket, Rebekah smirking back at him over her shoulder.

Once they were back in the gym, Rebekah helped Elena out of the rain covered jacket.

"Can you take it?" Elena asked. "I don't want to be responsible for it. You can do whatever you want with it, I just don't want to be the one in charge of it and the one who gets yelled at."

"Sure," Rebekah agreed, taking the jacket to put it with the rest of her stuff.

* * *

After school when Damon reached the parking lot, Jeremy and Elena were just pulling out of the parking lot. He was too late to get his jacket back that day.

"What happened to your jacket?" Stefan asked when he arrived at the car to find his older brother standing in the pouring rain wearing just a t-shirt on his top half.

"Don't try to help people," Damon responded. "They're never as grateful as they should be. And they usually aren't even grateful at all."

Stefan decided not to ask what had happened as he got into the car.

* * *

The next day at lunch, Damon didn't enter the cafeteria in the timid way that he had the two days before. No, he came bursting in and stormed over to the table right away.

Damon didn't go sit on the edge as far away from Elena as possible. Instead he sat down right next to her, turned to face her with a look of rage as his hand slammed against the table.

"I didn't think that you were the stealing type," He hissed. "Where's my jacket?"

"I don't have it," Elena said with a shrug.

"Yeah right, the unicorn stole it from you after I gave it to you yesterday," Damon growled. "I should have known."

"Well maybe if you want it back you should stop being a dick for even two seconds." Elena retorted. "But you can't do that, can you? You can't even answer one single question. It must be one hell of an answer if you're trying to hide it this hard."

"Fuck this!" Damon said. "I don't have to jump through your hoops to get  _my_  jacket back. It just shows how desperate you are that you're holding my stuff hostage just to try and get to talk to me."

"Well maybe I wouldn't have to if you weren't completely ignoring me and acting like a giant two year old," Elena responded, just as angrily as his tone had been. "And by the way I really don't have your jacket. I didn't want to get accused of stealing it for attention so Rebekah took it."

"And of course she isn't here today," Damon said, his tone venomous as he pushed himself back up into a standing position and turned to go storm out of the cafeteria once again. He didn't need to stay in there and deal with that.

* * *

Damon had just stepped into the hallway when someone grabbed his arm from behind.

He turned around to find a not so happy looking Caroline glaring at him as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"I don't know what the hell is wrong with you, but you can't just treat Elena like that!" Caroline told him. "It was one thing when you treated me like crap, but Elena deserves a hell of a lot better than this and we both know that you know that no matter how much you put up your little act of hatred and indifference."

"Leave me alone, Caroline," Damon said turning around to walk away once again. "And don't pretend to know anything about me."

She grabbed his shoulder and turned him back around.

"I know more about you than you'd like to think," Caroline told him. "I've heard about the thing with your dad. And you know what, that sucks, and I'm sorry. But that's no excuse to treat Elena like trash. And I've put the pieces together, okay? I know that Elena knew long before anyone else did. And it's really shitty that you treat her like this after all that she helped you with."

"I don't have to listen to you," Damon said. "What makes you think that I care about what you have to say or think? Newsflash, I don't."

"But you do," Caroline insisted. "Because there's a part of you that needs to know how much damage you did to her. There's a part of you that needs to know whether she's okay or not as much as you try to push that part away. I've seen the way that you look at her Damon, the way that you still do when you can't control it or you think that people aren't looking. Feelings like that don't just disappear overnight. So then why did you break up with her? And why did you do it in such a shitty way? Why are you acting like a total asshole to her now?"

"I don't have to answer your questions," Damon told her. "I don't owe you a single answer."

"But you do owe Elena answers," Caroline said. "You owe her answers that clearly you don't want to give her. There were probably a bunch of little things that led up to your decision to end things, right? Give me one. Just one and I'll walk away and leave you alone. All I want is one measly reason and then you can go back to storming off and I'll go back into the caf and I won't ever bother you about this again for as long as I live… Come on."

"What part of 'I'm not answering you' do you not understand?" Damon asked, although for some reason he remained rooted to the spot instead of turning around and walking away.

"How about a guessing game, then?" Caroline asked. "All you have to do is tell me if any of my guesses are right. As soon as you say that one is right, then I'll leave you alone."

Damon didn't respond, but he also didn't turn to go.

"Okay. Do you like someone else?" Caroline tried, with no response. "…Do you not like her anymore? …Did you guys have some fight that I don't know about?" Damon continued to remain completely silent. Even if he had been willing to go along with Caroline's stupid game, he still wouldn't have been able to say yes to any of those. "…Did things change? …Is being single easier? …What, you don't have anything in common? …You don't have time for her? …What, the butterflies are gone? …You just thought that it was time to move on? …Come on, you've got to give me something. I'm giving you the vaguest of the vague, the most obvious of the obvious. If none of these apply, then why the hell did you break up with her?"

Damon turned to leave and that time Caroline didn't even try to stop him, she knew that the conversation was going nowhere and keeping Damon there wouldn't help with anything.

Once Damon was gone down the hallway, Caroline turned back into the cafeteria, even more confused by Damon's behaviour than she had been before.


	20. Chapter 20

When the weekend finally came, Caroline was having second thoughts about going on the trip to see her father. She wasn't so sure about leaving Elena at that point, even if she did have other people around. And things were complicated enough even if you just took into account what had been going on between her and Klaus and disregarded all of the Tyler, Damon, Elena, Matt, and Stefan drama.

Besides, she wasn't so sure that she was ready to see her father after all that had happened. She wasn't ready to confront him or to meet his new family. Or for it to finally be one hundred percent entirely real that her parents were split up, that her dad was living in a new house, with a new girlfriend, and a new teenage daughter.

The longer that Caroline sat waiting in the airport, the more and more nervous that she became. The pit in her stomach kept growing and growing until it had reached the size of a boulder.

The flight there hadn't been any more easing.

As Caroline got off of the flight, she could feel her heart thumping in her chest. She could feel it throughout her body, hear it in her ears. She was even shaking a little bit as she continued to walk.

Caroline grinned when she saw her dad waiting for her. He was alone.

At least he'd had the consideration to not bring the girlfriend and daughter to the airport to pick her up. That meant that she would get at least a little while of time with just her dad before she had to meet them.

Caroline half ran over to her dad and he pulled her into a big hug when she reached him.

"There she is," He said as he held her tight.

Once they had finished their greetings, they went to go get Caroline's bag off of the carousel and he carried it for her to the car.

"Are you hungry?" He asked her as she got into the passenger seat of his black car. "I know that it's already almost lunch time back in Mystic Falls, but it's still breakfast time here if you want to go get some strawberry waffles."

Strawberry waffles were Caroline's favourite breakfast food. There had been a whole week when she was little where she had refused to eat anything except for strawberry waffles for any meal. Her mother hadn't been impressed and had begged her to eat something, anything else for at least one meal a day. Her dad on the other hand had smiled and laughed each time that she had asked for them. He had made her waffles separate from whatever meal he and her mother were having until one day Caroline asked for 'anything other than strawberry waffles'. Caroline supposed that her dad had been expecting her to get sick of them soon enough and decided that it would be easier to let the phase run its course instead of trying to reason with a blubbering six year old.

"I could go for some food," Caroline agreed.

* * *

As he drove, Caroline took her phone out of her pocket and turned airplane mode off. She sent a quick text to her mother saying that she had landed and she was with her father, and then went to read her one unread message.

* * *

**From Klaus:**

_Am I right yet?_

* * *

Caroline rolled her eyes as she typed back a reply.

* * *

**From Caroline:**

_About what?_

**From Klaus:**

_That it wouldn't be anywhere as bad as you were expecting it to be._

**From Caroline:**

_It isn't yet. He picked me up by himself and we're going for waffles. That doesn't mean that it won't get terrible as soon as we go meet Christie and Zoey._

**From Klaus:**

_If I didn't know better, I would think that you want this trip to go badly._

* * *

"Who are you texting up a storm with?" Caroline's father asked. "Is it your boyfriend?"

"No," Caroline quickly responded; possibly a little too quickly.

"Well do you have a boyfriend?" He asked.

"No," Caroline answered.

"What about that Salvatore boy?" He asked her.

"Damon?" Caroline asked, resisting the strong urge to laugh in her father's face. "Yeah right."

"You two seemed pretty close before I left," He commented. "Is it so ridiculous to think that there could be something going on between you two?"

"Months ago when you left? No," Caroline began to answer. "But now, yes. It's completely ridiculous. That relationship started and ended a long time ago. And it wasn't all that short of a relationship. But of course you wouldn't know that. And why should I expect you to when you've never been around or even called to find out what's new?"

Her father looked out the windshield, not saying a word in response.

The tone in the car got very awkward as they both sat in silence. Caroline partially regretted saying that, or at the very least regretted how harsh it had come out. But there was another large part of Caroline that was relieved to get even that small amount off of her chest. Because why shouldn't she tell him about that? Why shouldn't he have to face the consequences of leaving for almost a year and never coming back?

Neither of them spoke again until they were sitting at the table of the restaurant they had gone to. They had already ordered before they finally spoke to each other again.

"I shouldn't have said that," Caroline said, just wanting the awkwardness to go away. "Just forget that it ever happened."

"No, you were right," He argued. "I haven't been there for you at all lately. And if someone gave me a quiz about your life right now, I'd probably fail it. So help me catch up."

Caroline wasn't sure where to begin. So much had happened and yet at the same time she felt as if there wasn't really anything for her to tell her father.

Caroline managed to find a few things worthy of bringing up and her father brought up some about his own life, and before long they were laughing and telling stupid stories that didn't matter at all about things that had happened during the past months.

* * *

After they finished their breakfast, they drove to what had become her father's new home.

As soon as they walked through the door, Christie pulled Caroline into a big hug.

Caroline had not been expecting it and stumbled back a step when it happened.

"You must be Caroline," Christie said a little over-excitedly as she leaned back to get a better look at Caroline, her hands still holding onto Caroline's shoulders as she did so.

Caroline resisted to the urge to respond back with a sarcastic, 'No I'm some other teenage girl that he picked up today.'

"And you must be Christie," Caroline said, forcing a false smile onto her face when she really just wanted to roll her eyes and leave the room.

Bill Forbes was the only one in the room who was genuinely smiling, he seemed to think that the pair was actually getting along when in reality Caroline was hardly tolerating the woman who was just acting incredibly overly-friendly to try to impress him and get Caroline on her side for her own purposes.

A girl Caroline's age with aggressively ginger hair walked into the room, heading for the front door.

"Zo, why don't you take Caroline with you to go meet your friends?" Christie asked cheerily as if she had offered her daughter the most exciting idea that had ever been provided to anyone.

The only upside to going with Zoey would be getting away from Captain Cheerful for a while.

"Yeah, because that's exactly what I want to do when I'm going to hang out with my friends on my birthday," Zoey began to respond sarcastically. "Have your boyfriend's Malibu Beach Barbie look-a-like of a daughter tag along."

Although Caroline knew that she had just been insulted, she still liked Zoey a lot better than her mother already. At least she wasn't pretending to be happy about the situation, Caroline figured that she'd probably rather put up with a bitchy teenager than a cheery overgrown child.

"Zoey!" Christie said, sounding as if she were scolding a dog that was rebelling against potty training and not a human being. "How about you try to be a little more welcoming to our guest-" Caroline resisted the urge to snort at the word guest. "And I really think that you should take her with you," She said in her mom tone where it was very clear to everyone in the room that it was not optional and certainly not up for discussion. "I think that if you two spend a little time together, you'll find that you get along perfectly."

Caroline bit back the 'Based on what?' that was on the tip of her tongue.

"Whatever," Zoey said as she opened the door and stepped out onto the front porch. "Are you coming, Barbie?"

Caroline followed the girl and once the door was shut behind them and they were out of earshot of their parents, Caroline said in a not so friendly tone, "My name's Caroline, not Barbie. And it's not like I'm exactly thrilled about being here either. In fact I almost didn't come. The only reason that I'm here is to see my dad, I really couldn't care less about you and your mom. Alright, Carrot Top?"

"Maybe you aren't completely horrible," Zoey said with a smirk as she continued to walk in front of Caroline, leading her without so much as a glance backwards. "At least you have a few brain cells if you realize that we aren't going to make friends."

"Gee, thanks," Caroline said sarcastically, not taking it as much of a compliment. "I'm so honoured to receive such high praise from someone whose opinion I care about so very much."

"You should be because that's the nicest thing that I'll ever say to you, Barbie," Zoey said, making a point of calling Caroline by the name that she disliked.

* * *

A while later Caroline sat in a park with Zoey's group of friends.

A guy named Cody seemed a little too welcoming as he sat far too close to her and wouldn't stop trying to hit on her. Caroline wasn't interested, but he kept going anyways. It didn't take long before Caroline noticed the look of jealousy on Zoey's face.

"Let's go for a walk," Caroline said to Cody, earning her a glare from Zoey.

"Okay," Cody agreed a little too eagerly.

Caroline crossed her arms as she began to walk to ensure that he wouldn't make a move to try and grab her hand.

"Just so you know, there is really nothing going to happen between us," Caroline told him once they were a fair distance away. "But Zoey clearly likes you."

"No she doesn't," He responded, turning to gaze over at her.

"Yeah, she does," Caroline insisted. "Trust me, I'm a girl. I can tell this sort of thing."

"Really?" He asked, his voice sounding unsure and maybe a little bit hopeful.

"Really," Caroline told him.

* * *

A few minutes later as Caroline watched Zoey and Cody holding hands, she pulled out her phone and began to text Klaus again.

* * *

**From Caroline:**

_It looks like you've got some competition out here._

* * *

Caroline seemed to grow onto Zoey's good side after rejecting Cody.

* * *

That night when they were back at Zoey's place, Zoey asked, "Who are you texting? Your boyfriend?"

"Not exactly," Caroline responded.

"So what, he's just a guy that you keep on the hook, but never actually commit to?" Zoey asked. "God, it must be so easy looking like that."

Caroline frowned; the words weren't too far from the truth.

"It's not that easy," Caroline told her. "And it's more complicated than that."

"That's why you're blushing right?" Zoey asked.

"No," Caroline said. "He likes me, but now he's refusing to let anything happen unless I commit to him first-"

"So it's exactly what I said?" Zoey interrupted.

"No," Caroline argued again. "It's not that I don't want to go out with him, but now he started this stupid tease game trying to make me give and it's really complicated."

"It doesn't really sound like it," Zoey told her. "You both want to get together. Who cares who wins the tease thing? What does it matter if you convince him to kiss you without commitment if you're going to commit to him right after. It sounds more like you're going to screw everything up trying to win. If you end up with him, then isn't that a win for both of you anyways?"

Caroline thought about it and suddenly she wasn't so sure why she had been so committed to the game.

* * *

Before leaving on Sunday, Caroline managed to get up the guts to confront her dad in private about how she didn't want to just go back to no communication. He agreed to call her weekly once she got back.

* * *

On Monday, Caroline didn't see Klaus until lunchtime.

She was already seated at the table when he walked into the cafeteria. Caroline got up and walked over to meet him halfway.

Klaus smiled at her and looked as if he was about to say something when Caroline kissed him hard, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck.

Klaus began to kiss her back without a moment's hesitation and they only separated when they needed to stop for air.

"Well I guess you win then," Klaus said in a whisper.

"That was me forfeiting," Caroline told him with a slight smirk.

"Well then it looks like we both lost," Klaus responded.

"I prefer to think that we both won," Caroline said before kissing him again.

"I guess we could look at that way," He said with a chuckle.

"What, you were expecting me to look for the absolute worst of the situation like I always do?" Caroline teased.

"Hey, I thought that you were gay," Some guy shouted to Klaus.

"I'm bi," Klaus replied as he grabbed hold of Caroline's hand and they began to walk back to their regular table.

"By the way, I've been waiting to see you in person to tell you some good news I got over the weekend," Klaus whispered to her.

* * *

A few months later, Alaric had successfully adopted Stefan and Damon. Damon even had a bed and a room instead of still sleeping on the living room couch.

Although apparently Damon had not minded the prior situation, which Alaric discovered when he had brought up needing to get Damon a bed.

"I guess if I'm adopting you guys then I should probably get you a bed and a room," Alaric had pointed out.

"Doesn't matter to me, I can sleep on the crappy metal bleachers out by the football field, so I have no problem with the couch," Damon responded honestly.

"How do you know that?" Alaric asked.

Alaric hadn't exactly been eager to find out how Damon knew that, but his curiosity got the best of him. He figured that it would be better to ask so that he could find out if he had slept there at night or if he had just slept there as one of the times that Damon slept when he got bored.

"Stefan's football practices are just not as interesting as he likes to pretend that they are," Damon said with a lopsided smirk.

A wave of relief washed over Alaric at the answer.

"What, did you think that they were like my second bed or something?" Damon asked.

"Maybe a little," Alaric admitted in an embarrassed tone. "And I do care; we really need to get you a bed."

"Kay," Damon responded with a yawn.

"I'll take the hint and leave so that you can go to sleep over an hour before any other normal teenager would even consider going to bed," Alaric said, moving to leave the room.

"Are you calling me normal?" Damon asked.

"I guess so," Alaric responded.

"Do you seriously think that?" Damon asked.

"I think that even the people that are considered to be normal aren't really normal," Alaric responded. "Literally everyone has something that makes them totally weird. Actually being normal and not having anything even slightly off is what makes you weird. Having something weird is what makes people normal."

"I'm really tired so I don't know if that was really deep or if it didn't make any sense whatsoever," Damon commented.

Alaric laughed a little as he walked out of the room. He couldn't even remember how his life had been before he'd had Damon and Stefan living with him even if they had only been living there for a relatively short time. All he knew was that he would never go back and that he wouldn't change it for the world.

* * *

Caroline and Klaus were hanging out at his house when a car pulled up in the driveway.

"Oh. My. God." Rebekah said happily.

She left from where she had been looking out a window and moved towards the front door.

Klaus looked out the window and grinned before following his sister with Caroline close behind him.

"Is that my baby brother?" Rebekah asked excitedly as she ran towards the two men standing in the driveway and practically tackled one to the ground with a hug.

"I'm really not a baby anymore," He argued as he hugged her back. "But thanks for embarrassing me within the first two seconds of meeting your blonde friend."

As Kol and Rebekah hugged, Klaus hugged Elijah.

"Don't hit on her," Rebekah warned. "Nik will kill you."

Rebekah and Klaus traded siblings to hug once they were done hugging the first ones.

"I thought that you weren't supposed to get here until tomorrow," Klaus said.

"We thought that it would be much more fun to surprise you by telling you a day late," Elijah told him.

"Hey, I'm going to go," Caroline said, deciding to leave them to catch up.

"Are you sure?" Klaus asked her.

"Yeah, I have to go over to Elena's today anyways," Caroline said before kissing him goodbye.

* * *

"You saw them?" Bonnie asked as the trio sat in Elena's room.

"So what does the one that's going to go to school with us look like?" Elena asked.

Caroline grinned at the fact that Elena was asking about a guy's appearance.

"Good. He's hot," She responded.

* * *

On Kol's first day of school, they didn't see him until lunch since he was in a younger grade.

Kol entered the cafeteria with a flock of people in his grade already surrounding him, but he ignored them and began to walk away when he spotted where his siblings were already seated.

As Bonnie and Elena watched him walk towards the table, Bonnie commented, "Well Caroline wasn't lying."

"No she was not," Elena agreed.

Kol flashed a smile when saw the two girls looking at him and then he sat down right between them.

Kol turned to face Rebekah and Klaus before asking, "I can hit on these ones, right?"

He received a nod of approval that caused Elena and Bonnie to giggle a little.

Damon resisted the strong desire to roll his eyes or comment, since he really didn't have the right to after not saying a single word to Elena for months.


	21. Chapter 21

**The Next School Year – Friday, October 31:**

Elena was beginning to strongly regret allowing Caroline to choose her Halloween costume for her.

"I'm not so sure about this," Bonnie said.

"Is it just me or are we dressed less like slutty animals and more like slutty sluts?" Elena asked.

"Now you're catching on," Caroline said with a smirk. "They aren't even that bad. This'll be appropriate compared to some of the girls there."

* * *

When Damon Salvatore arrived at the Halloween party, of course not wearing a costume, he headed straight over to his brother.

The three girls had been hanging out at the party for a while and dancing with Rebekah when Elena suddenly stopped dancing.

The other three girls turned to look in the direction of her gaze to spot Damon hugging Stefan.

"Damon's back," Caroline said, although it had become clear to all of them.

Damon had left for an indefinite amount of time after graduation for reasons that weren't really clear to anyone. His real reasoning had been that he'd needed to get away from Elena because he still couldn't stand being around her and trying to act indifferent and he knew that he needed to figure his shit out or move on.

"And he brought a girl with him," Bonnie added raising an eyebrow as Damon clasped the hand of the girl standing next to him and seemed to be introducing her to Stefan.

Elena knew that after all of that time without so much as a word from Damon and after the way that he had treated her after the breakup that it shouldn't have made her feel that way to see Damon with another girl, but it did. Elena was sure that whoever the girl was she was a lovely person and that only made Elena hate her and Damon even more.

* * *

A while later Elena stood talking to Elijah. Caroline and the others had only agreed to leave her alone as long as she was supervised, not wanting to leave her by herself for even a second after what had happened at Tyler's party the year before.

"You aren't drinking either?" He asked.

"We walked in and Jeremy instantly chugged a beer and then laughed and said 'I guess you're the designated driver'," Elena responded.

"Yeah I'm here under role of designated driver too," He told her.

"You're supporting their under-age drinking without even getting a drink yourself?" Elena asked. "I wouldn't have expected that."

"If I didn't they'd all drink anyways," Elijah pointed out, then a small smirk formed on his lips as he added, "Besides, it would be a little hypocritical of me not to when I'm the one who taught Rebekah and Nik how to sneak out of the house to go to a party in the first place."

" _You_  did?" Elena asked skeptically. "Somehow I don't see you as the sneaking out for a party kind of guy."

"Well there was a girl that I was meeting at the party," Elijah said, his lip twitching upwards.

"Ah, of course," Elena said. "Now it makes sense. There's always a girl."

"Believe it or not, I practically had to push Nik out of the window when he wanted to back out," Elijah said with a slight laugh.

* * *

Elena managed to walk by herself when she was going to go talk to Stefan. She got intercepted on her way before she ever made it to him.

"I like the costume."

Elena turned around to look at Damon with a look of utter disbelief.

"I'm sorry, were you talking to me?" Elena asked, crinkling her forehead and tilting her head even though she knew very well who he had been talking to.

"Yes I was talking to you," He said, seeming confused by her reaction.

"Oh, it's just that I didn't think that you even knew how to do that anymore," She retorted.

"You know what, that's probably fair," Damon said. "I'll give you that one."

" _Probably? …Give?_ " Elena asked with a laugh. "Okay then."

"So are you and Elijah a thing now?" Damon asked, clearly having seen her hanging out with him.

Elena began to actually laugh as she said, "Like it's really any of your business who I may or may not be dating. …We aren't, not that you deserve to know."

"…Aren't you going to ask about the girl I showed up with?" He asked.

"No, why would I?" Elena asked, giving him a look of confusion. "What makes you think that I care about who you date? Or about you for that matter?"

"Well her name's Andie," Damon told her. "I think that you would like her."

"Wow, good for her," Elena said. "Now if you'll excuse me I'd like to go talk to someone who I actually like to be around and who doesn't hate me to talk to."

"You're meaner than I remembered," Damon commented as she turned to walk away. "Sassier too. I like it."

"Don't do that," Elena said as she stopped to turn around and glare at him.

"Do what?" He asked.

"Don't act like we're friends now after you haven't even said a word to me for almost a year before tonight," Elena said angrily. "And this isn't me acting jealous, so don't even dare try to pretend that it is. Just leave me alone and go back to your girlfriend, she doesn't know anyone else here and she's probably looking for you."

Elena walked away as the arrogant smirk on Damon's face crumpled.

* * *

A while later Elena was talking to Elijah once again while his siblings were becoming more and more intoxicated.

* * *

"Hey Damon, who's the girl?" Rebekah asked as she walked over to where Damon, Stefan, Matt, and Andie were all standing together.

"Andie Star," Damon introduced her while grabbing her hand once again.

"So she's like your girlfriend now?" Rebekah asked curiously.

"Yeah," Damon told her.

Andie was about to ask who the girl who had just come over was, when the blonde spoke again.

"Weird, I always thought that you'd get back with Elena before you'd date someone else," Rebekah commented before taking another sip of her drink.

Andie frowned a little while Damon appeared unsure of what to say.

"Rebekah," Matt said, sounding as if he was attempting to scold her.

"What?" Rebekah asked confused as to why she was getting in trouble. "I'm just saying that I don't really know this new girl, but let's face it there's no way that she can compete with what he had with Elena."

"Rebekah, I'm with Andie now," Damon told her. "And we're happy, so could you not?"

"Oh, I get it," Rebekah said. "Is she a better kisser than Elena? Is that what it is?"

Before anyone had any chance to realize what was happening or stop her, Rebekah's lips were pressed against a very shocked Andie's.

Andie tried to push away, but Rebekah held her there for a few more long seconds before releasing the other woman.

"She isn't even a better kisser than Elena," Rebekah commented as she backed up a few steps. "Elena kisses way better than new girl."

"Her name is Andie," Damon said sternly as he wrapped a comforting arm around his frazzled girlfriend. "And how would you know? You've never kissed Elena."

"Yes I have!" Rebekah argued defensively.

* * *

"Well clearly your sister's had a few too many," Elena said, gesturing over to where Rebekah was for some reason forcing herself upon Damon's new girlfriend.

Elijah pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment and said, "Sorry, I have to go deal with her."

He began to head over to where his sister was standing with a drink still in her hand.

* * *

"When did  _you_  kiss Elena?" Stefan couldn't resist asking.

"A few years ago," Rebekah responded. "Before we started fighting. We were playing a game of truth or dare and Elena got dared to kiss me, it's not a big deal."

"Okay, you are done drinking," Elijah said, grabbing the drink out of his sister's hand as he walked up next to her.

"Why?" Rebekah asked. "I was just getting to know Damon's new girlfriend and making conversation."

"Sure you were," Elijah agreed, sounding less than convinced, as he began to drag her away by the arm while shooting Damon and Andie an apologetic look.

"That's the kind of people that you hang out with?" Andie asked quietly.

"I am so sorry, I have no idea why she did that," Damon said, deciding not to mention that he had found it hot. "I guess she was just really drunk."

"No kidding," Andie replied.

Damon wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

* * *

A few minutes after Elijah had left to go babysit his sister, Kol had walked over to Elena with a smirk on his face.

"I thought that you were not to be left alone under any circumstances," He said with a silly grin.

"Caroline's still a little paranoid after what happened at the last party," Elena said, although she chose not to explain all of what had happened to him.

"Worrying people are so annoying," Kol told her. "Believe me; I know what it feels like being constantly babysat for no reason." He turned to look towards his older brothers and sister before turning back to look at her.

"What, you don't enjoy constantly being treated like a ten year old?" Elena asked in mock surprise. "Hey, it isn't that bad. They're letting you drink at least."

"What, you aren't allowed to drink?" Kol asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "I could sneak you some if you want."

"No, it has nothing to do with the babysitting thing," Elena told him. "I just got forced into being designated driver."

"Bummer," Kol commented.

"It's not so terrible," Elena responded. "Well at least it wasn't at first. But then Caroline and Bonnie went off to dance with Klaus and Jer, and Damon showed up and acted like a total ass. And not in the usual ignoring way that I've gotten used to either."

"Who cares about what Damon does?" Kol asked. "You never even talk to that guy."

Elena frowned, "I take it you never heard about the fact that Damon and I used to be together."

Kol looked a little puzzled and shocked.

"What happened when you broke up that made it so bad that you don't talk to each other at all anymore?" Kol asked.

"That's what I'd like to know," Elena commented. "One day he just started ignoring me and told Stefan that we were broken up, not me. That's how I found out about it. And I tried talking to him and figuring out what the hell was going on, but he just acted like a total asshole whenever I tried to talk to him. After a while I got sick of it and I guess I half thought that he'd get over whatever it was on his own. But he never did, he just kept acting like I didn't even exist. That is until he showed up with his new girlfriend tonight and then immediately started hitting on me and trying to act like we're friends. And then he acts jealous over the fact that I was talking to Elijah, which he has no right to do. Especially when he is at the same time trying to brag over the fact that he has a new girlfriend."

"That's messed up," Kol said. "Especially when he broke up with you so long ago and he's mad that you're just talking to another guy."

"I know, I thought that I was done with this crap," Elena told him and then frowned. "Sorry, I am a terrible buzz kill right now."

"I actually think that you're doing quite well at being a buzz kill," Kol said jokingly.

"Thanks," Elena replied with a slight laugh. "It means a lot."

"Well it's not too late to change your ways," Kol told her with a smirk. "I am very well versed in the ways of fun if you need a mentor."

"By all means," Elena responded with a tilted smile. "Teach away."

Elena ended up spending the rest of the night enjoying herself as she fooled around and danced with her friends.

* * *

When Elena got home, for once it was her flopping down on Jenna's bed instead of the other way around.

"What happened?" Jenna asked instantly.

Elena rolled off of her stomach and onto her side so that she could face her aunt.

"Damon," Elena said.

"Oh," Jenna said, seeming to gather a lot from just that one word. "So I take it he's back now."

"Yup," Elena responded.

"Still ignoring you?" Jenna guessed in a tone of sympathy.

"No, actually," Elena said. "Get this, now he's trying to pretend like the whole ignoring me for months and acting like an asshole thing never happened."

"Scumbag move," Jenna responded.

"Yeah, he was trying to be flirty friend Damon while trying to keep tabs on whether I was dating anyone or not-" Elena began to explain.

"So he likes you again, he's back to normal," Jenna interrupted. "I mean yeah, he totally doesn't deserve you back. But if you still care about him then this could be a good thing."

"I didn't get to tell you the best part," Elena told her in a tone of dismay. "He then felt the need to brag over how he has this new girlfriend that he brought back with him."

"Total scuzzbag move," Jenna commented.

"Yeah," Elena responded. "And then he had the nerve to say that I would like her. Because apparently me and 'Andie' would make fantastic friends."

"Uggh, I just want to hit that boy upside the head sometimes," Jenna said, before realizing what she had just said about a boy who was beaten by his father and winced. "Okay, that's not what I mean. But you get it, right? I just want to sit him down and yell at him for several hours straight."

"Believe me, I understand," Elena replied.

"So wait, what exactly did he say about you and his new girlfriend?" Jenna asked.

"He said 'I think that you would like her'," Elena responded.

"Was it like an 'I think that you would like her because she's so amazing and everyone should love her so much because she's the definition of perfection'?" Jenna asked. "Or was it an "I think that you would like her because she's so similar to you because I never really got over you and I'm just dating the closest replacement that I can find to try and ease the pain and make you jealous at the same time'?"

"I don't know," Elena responded honestly. "Maybe it was neither."

"I don't understand what goes on in that boy's mind," Jenna told her.

"Yeah, neither do I," Elena agreed. "I don't think that anybody does."

"It's like one minute he's the sweetest cheesiest guy who's all over you and the next second he's a total douche," Jenna pointed out. "And I don't get it because after you two broke up whenever I was around him because of Alaric he went all quiet and guilty looking. But meanwhile he acts like a total ass to your face and makes absolutely no effort whatsoever in any way to make friends or at least not completely annihilate your feelings."

"I understood it when he was acting like a dick to everyone because of his dad," Elena began. "And I got it when he was back to acting normal, but still had those moments. I don't get what made him just flip the switch to hatred. God, I just don't understand why he can't even give me one reason so that I could just have the tiniest bit of closure over everything."

"I was here for the last time that he wasn't an ass to you," Jenna responded. "I saw it. You two were acting so disgustingly mushy and happy that I debated throwing things at you or kicking you both out."

"Thanks," Elena said sarcastically.

* * *

"So that was an ... _interesting_  party," Andie commented to Damon afterwards when they were walking along the empty streets together hand in hand.

"Yeah," Damon responded apologetically. "I'd say that they aren't all usually like that, but it's not entirely true. But I swear that Rebekah usually doesn't go around making out with every girl she sees."

Andie went silent for a few seconds before saying, "She talked about Elena a lot. That's the girl that you were so hung up on when we met, right?"

"Yeah," Damon responded honestly. "Why?"

"I don't know," Andie responded. "I guess it was just already hard enough competing with her when I was alone with you far away. But now she's right there and all that everyone is doing is comparing me to her..."

"Hey, you are not just a replacement Elena. Okay?" Damon asked her seriously. "Ignore Rebekah. I promise you that you are the only girl on my mind right now."

Andie smiled up at him as she said, "You're right, I'm probably just being stupid and paranoid."

Damon led her into Alaric's house where they were staying.

* * *

The next day Damon and Andie ran into Elena at the Mystic Grill.

"Hey, Elena," Damon said.

Elena just ignored him and walked away as Andie arched an eyebrow at her boyfriend.

Damon seemed to take the hint that time and didn't follow her towards the table where Bonnie and Caroline were already seated.

* * *

That evening when Damon was waiting with Stefan and Andie for Alaric to come home so that they could have dinner, the phone began to ring loudly in the kitchen.

Damon reached the phone first and immediately picked it up to hear Alaric's worried voice.

After three sentences Damon had heard enough information. He shoved the phone into his brother's chest and then quickly headed out the door without so much as a word of goodbye.

Damon was in the car and gone before Stefan even had the phone to his ear to figure out what the hell was going on.


	22. Chapter 22

Damon drove to the hospital, then quickly got out of the car and headed towards the waiting room.

* * *

When Damon reached the waiting room he saw that Alaric, Jeremy, and Elena were already there.

Alaric seemed to be keeping it together the most as he leaned against the wall, although he looked like the smallest of things might send him into an emotional breakdown.

Jeremy sat in a chair, staring straight ahead. He seemed to be in some sort of shock.

Elena was clearly in the worst condition as she paced in front of the chairs. Every few seconds a hand would go up to wipe away a stray tear that she couldn't hold back.

Damon immediately headed towards Elena as she turned to face him with a look of sadness and slight confusion. Damon didn't hesitate before pulling her into a bear hug, clutching her as tight to his chest as possible as if somehow he could protect her from what had happened that way.

Elena didn't argue with this or make any attempt to resist. Instead she leaned into the hug, enjoying the comfort that she got from it as she cried into the shoulder of his shirt.

Damon just stood there holding her, not saying anything because he didn't know what he could say. After all, promising her that everything was going to be okay would be a lie. Damon really had no idea what was going to happen and he was scared himself.

After a few long seconds, he finally turned to Alaric and asked, "Did you guys hear anything yet?"

Alaric shook his head no.

* * *

A while later a doctor was finally sent out to deliver news to them.

He talked for a long time, giving them a lot of medical jargon as he did so. But in the end basically what he had said was that Jenna was in a coma and they had no idea whether she would come back out of it or not. It was possible that she could wake up within a few days, but it was also a possibility that she would never come back out of it.

* * *

Damon and Alaric stayed until the end of visiting hours, when it is mandatory for all non-family members to leave.

* * *

When they returned to Alaric's place, Andie and Stefan were already seated in the kitchen waiting for them.

Stefan had already heard about the car accident from Alaric after Damon had left, but he didn't know any of the information about the coma. He had passed what he had known on to Andie.

When Damon spotted Andie, he instantly began to feel guilty. He had been so worried about Elena when he had heard the news that he had just left without an instant's hesitation. And while he had been at the hospital, Damon had not been thinking about Andie at all. He was ashamed to admit to himself that he had entirely forgotten about her up until he saw her sitting in the kitchen.

"Is she okay?" Stefan immediately asked Alaric.

"She's in a coma," Alaric tells him. "They don't know if she's going to wake up."

At the hospital, Damon had been worried about Elena, Jeremy, and Alaric although most of his attention was focussed on Elena, since she had seemed to be the one taking it the worst and he was worried about her. When they were back at Alaric's place Damon saw that Ric was barely keeping his strong face composed.

Damon felt like shit for not realizing just how hard Alaric was taking it. Of course he was taking it hard just as anyone should expect him to. Damon should have seen through the mask, after all he knew a lot about masks and how much pain you could be in while perfectly covering it up.

Alaric made no attempt to go to bed since he knew that no sleep would come that night.

"You should eat something," Damon suggested to him with a frown, remembering that Alaric hadn't ate anything since before he had arrived at the hospital. This was even worse since Alaric had been on his way home for dinner when he had gotten the call.

"I'm not hungry," Alaric told him.

"Well you've barely eaten anything today," Damon said, sounding like a concerned parent. "You should at least try to eat something."

Alaric groaned. He wanted to argue, but he knew that if it was Elena in the coma and Damon was the one refusing to eat that he would have definitely been trying to force Damon to eat something.

Alaric grabbed a bagel and then began to nibble at it without butter as he sat down at the kitchen table.

Damon made himself some cereal and then sat down at the table next to Andie and across from Alaric and began to eat in an uncomfortable silence.

* * *

Later that night, when Damon and Andie were lying in bed together, she turned to him with a frown.

"So it's Alaric's girlfriend who is also Elena's aunt that's in the coma?" Andie asked, still a little confused.

"Yeah," Damon told her.

"Well I hope that she wakes up soon," Andie responded.

The pair went to sleep not long after. Andie never made one comment on the way that Damon had ran out to go take care of Elena.

* * *

The next morning when Damon woke up Alaric was already gone back to the hospital. Damon took a quick shower and got dressed before leaving Andie sleeping in bed to go take care of Elena and Alaric… And let's face it Jeremy too because even if he didn't want to admit it, he was worried about Jeremy as well.

On his way to Jenna's room, Damon stopped at the vending machine to stalk up on food.

When Damon entered the room, he found Alaric and Jeremy awake while Elena was asleep sitting up and leaning against the wall to use it as a pillow. Damon was a little relieved to see that she had at least gotten some form of sleep.

Damon was expecting some sort of joke about buying out the hospital as he dumped all of the food out of his arms and onto the table, but no such joke came. It was worse having the mood in the room be so glum that the two other men just watched with disinterested facial expressions.

"Anybody who doesn't eat something will be fed by force," Damon said before sitting down in an empty chair.

He looked over at Jenna to see that she looked concerningly pale as she just laid there.

Damon turned back to see that neither of the other men had made even the slightest effort to get up or move towards the food. He grabbed two bags of chips off of the table and tossed them at Alaric and Jeremy who caught them reluctantly and just stared down at the bags vacantly.

Damon grabbed a third bag off of the table and opened it, deciding to try to lead by example.

He bit into a chip and then said seriously, "I wasn't kidding about the force feeding thing."

"Yeah, you should eat something Jeremy," Alaric said quietly as he made no effort to open his own bag of chips.

"So should you, Ric," Damon told him.

"I ate something before I came," Alaric lied.

Damon saw right through it, "Bullshit." His tone turned more concerned as he gave Alaric pleading eyes, "Just eat it. I know that you didn't eat anything this morning whether I was there or not. I barely managed to get you to eat three bites of a bagel last night, you have to eat."

Although the idea of eating at that point just made Alaric feel sick more than anything, he reluctantly opened the bag anyways, feeling bad for how concerned Damon looked over him.

Damon watched wearily until Alaric actually put a chip into his mouth. Damon eyed him the whole time that he chewed until he finally swallowed. As Alaric grabbed another chip out of the bag, Damon turned his attention towards the younger man.

"Do you really want me to shove the food down your throat?" Damon asked, and then moved as if he was about to get up. "Because I'll do it."

Jeremy groaned and opened the bag unhappily.

Damon felt a bit of relief at getting the other two to eat before he turned his attention back to his own chips.

* * *

Elena woke up a while later and looked around with sleepy eyes for a minute as if she was trying to figure out where she was and why before a look of concern returned to her face and she sat straight up, turning to look at Jenna searching for any sign of change.

"Here," Damon said, frowning as he tossed her some food.

"I'm not hungry," Elena told him, putting the chips down next to her.

"I wasn't asking," Damon said. "It's mandatory eating. Ask them."

Elena turned to look at her brother questioningly as she tried to figure out whether Damon was kidding or not. Jeremy just raised his eyebrows up and down at her once in response, causing Elena to groan.

"I don't care," Elena responded. "Mandatory or not, you can't make me. I'm not hungry."

"Oh yes I can," Damon told her seriously. "When's the last time that you ate?"

Elena frowned as she tried to remember, "Yesterday. At lunch I think."

"Exactly, now eat it," Damon argued.

"It doesn't matter when I ate last," Elena said angrily. "I said that I'm not hungry. I'm not eating it, the thought of eating makes me sick right now. Okay?"

"Not okay," Damon replied.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" Elena asked him, her tone turning even angrier.

"Why do you?" Damon shot back at her.

"I'm not being stubborn," Elena argued. "I'm just not listening to you."

"You're refusing to do something no matter how logical it is," Damon pointed out. "You're set on one option and you refuse to compromise. That's practically the definition of stubborn."

"Yeah well you're set on making me eat," Elena retorted. "I don't see you trying to make any compromises."

"Oh, did I forget to mention that?" Damon asked. "If you eat on your own then I won't force the food into your mouth for you."

"You're not going to force feed me either way," Elena said confidently.

"We'll see about that," Damon said as he stood up from his chair and began to head towards where she was sitting.

Elena crossed her arms and kept her mouth shut, a challenging look on her face.

"You look like one of those two year olds that is refusing to eat unless you make airplane noises," Damon commented.

Elena looked up at him with fierce eyes, clearly unamused.

Damon grabbed the bag of chips off of the windowsill next to her and pulled the top open.

"Are you sure that you don't just want to do this the easy way?" Damon asked her.

Elena ignored him.

Damon hesitated, trying to figure out how he was going to actually execute the whole force feeding plan. He would have to somehow get her to open her mouth and clearly she wasn't talking so that he couldn't stick a chip in her mouth while it was already open.

After a second, Damon reached out with one hand and attempted to pry her jaw open. The other hand held a chip in it.

Elena resisted as much as she could while she tried to rip her face out of his hands.

Damon loosened his grip as she flailed since he didn't want to hurt her.

"Seriously?" Damon asked her. "Can't you just eat one chip to make us feel better?"

Damon gave her the best pleading puppy dog eyes that he could.

Elena tried to resist, but ended up letting out a sigh of defeat. She rolled her eyes and then grabbed the chip out of his hand and bit half of it off.

"It's really not fair making that face you know," Elena told him.

"Well it's what got you and Ric both to eat, so excuse me if I don't particularly care if that counts as cheating in your books," Damon said as he sat back down.

"I'm only eating one," Elena said defensively. "That was the deal."

Damon didn't say a word in response as she put the other half of the chip into her mouth.

Damon didn't make any further attempts to convince her, at least verbally, after she had finished her promised chip.

He still sat there watching her with a look of pure concern, one that didn't even really have that much to do with the eating situation in general, until she felt guilty enough that she finally just picked up the bag huffily and began to eat out of it tentatively.

Damon didn't comment, but the side of his lip twitched up a little bit.


	23. Chapter 23

It was pin drop quiet after that for most of the morning until Caroline arrived, dragging Bonnie not far behind her. Caroline instantly rushed towards Elena and went into full blown maternal mode. She asked about four hundred times whether anyone needed anything and fretted over a hundred little things before she finally sat down. Meanwhile Bonnie just sat down right away and wrapped an arm around Elena in an attempt to help her feel better.

"It's so weird," Caroline commented as she looked at Jenna interestedly. "I mean she's just lying there. And if it wasn't for all the monitors and stuff I'd think she was like dead."

"Caroline!" Bonnie reacted instantly and then shot her a 'what the hell were you thinking' look.

"Oh my god," Caroline said in a panicked tone. "I'm so sorry, I just. I just meant that she's all pale and still and stuff. And I'm not helping things, am I?"

"Not really," Jeremy spoke up.

Caroline closed her eyes in embarrassment and shame as she mentally scolded herself for being so stupid to just blurt out her first thought. She had just wanted to break the silence, not make things even more uncomfortable and gloomy.

Elena didn't say anything in response to Caroline as she was too busy staring at her aunt's pale face. What Caroline had said was true, she did almost look dead and that scared Elena. What would she do without Jenna? There was no way that she could handle life without her. As Elena thought about all of the things that she would miss about Jenna if she was gone, she very closely monitored the slight rising and falling of Jenna's chest that was caused by her periodic breaths.

Elena felt tears blinking at her eyes once again and fought them back as she resisted the urge to swear under her breath.

Damon's body instantly tensed once he saw the devastated look on Elena's face as she remained almost hypnotized by Jenna's barely moving body. He waited to see if anyone else had noticed the look of silent misery before getting up to do something. Bonnie was too busy sitting with Jeremy, Alaric was too busy staring at the floor tiles, and Caroline was too busy freaking out over what she had said.

Damon got up from where he sat and moved to go sit next to Elena. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and then gently pulled her to rest her head on him.

Elena leaned into him, not caring at all at that point about whether it was wrong to enjoy it or not. It made her feel a little better and she really didn't care what people thought about that.

That was exactly when Elena remembered just why she should care about what people thought. Because Damon had a girlfriend, he wasn't her Damon anymore. He was Andie's Damon and she was hogging him.

Although Elena knew that she should tell Damon to go, she couldn't quite make herself tell him to leave and go back to Andie just yet. She knew that he was a large portion of the reason that she was keeping herself together as much as she was.

"So are you guys coming to school tomorrow or..?" Caroline asked with a concerned frown.

"I don't know," Elena responded.

"Well I'm not," Jeremy said decisively.

"You're going," Elena told him just as decisively.

"Why do you get to make the decisions?" Jeremy asked. "And how come you don't even know if you're going, but you already know whether I am or not, no matter what I say?"

"Because you have to go," Elena told him. "..And I'm older."

"We're twins," Jeremy said angrily. "You're older than me by minutes. Tell me what great wisdom those minutes have provided you with, Miss Superiority."

"Jer-" Elena said exasperatedly before realizing that she had no valid argument to scold him with. She was being one hundred percent hypocritical by trying to make him go to school while wanting to get a free pass to not go for herself.

Elena raised her arms up in a sign of innocence, "Fine, then I'll go too."

"You were  _supposed_  to say that I could stay here too," Jeremy complained.

"Staying won't help anything," Damon pointed out. "It's not like it'll wake her up, it'll just make sure that you're both behind at school." Damon didn't like how much of a parent he sounded like.

"It might not help anything, but she might wake up while we're gone," Jeremy pointed out, trying to convince Elena to stay and more importantly let him stay. "We should be here when she wakes up…"

"Yeah, but we don't know if or when she's going to wake up," Damon told him. "You can't just spend your entire lives sitting here waiting. Besides, don't you think that secretly Jenna would probably rather have no one here when she wakes up so that she can have some drama over that?"

Damon didn't say the last part in a mean way, but in a friendly and joking 'that's so Jenna' kind of tone.

* * *

Bonnie and Caroline stayed for a few hours, but then had to leave. Damon still stayed with them.

* * *

When visiting hours were almost over, Damon suggested, "If you're going to school tomorrow then you should probably sleep at home tonight. Or you kind of should in general."

"I want to stay," Elena said, although the idea of sleeping in a bed did catch her attention.

"Because that chair's so comfy?" Damon asked. "She'll still be here tomorrow; you can come see her after school. And before school if you want to, but sleeping in the world's least comfy position isn't going to help with anything."

"I guess so," Elena agreed surprisingly easily since the chair had left her neck hurting from the night before.

Damon turned to look towards Jeremy with a questioning look. Jeremy simply nodded in response, seeming to also enjoy the idea of sleeping in a bed. Even if it did mean that they'd have to leave Jenna for longer.

They had been dropped off at the hospital and had not driven themselves, while Alaric and Damon had come in separate cars so Damon decided to drive the Gilberts home and told Alaric to go home ahead of him.

* * *

When they arrived at the Gilbert house, Jeremy headed straight out of the car and up to his room. He wasn't in the mood for any more socializing than was absolutely necessary.

Elena, however, stayed in the car for a little extra time seeming hesitant.

"Are you okay?" Damon asked her.

Elena nodded unconvincingly. She really didn't want to ask Damon to come inside for a while when he had a girlfriend at home, but at the same time she didn't want to go sit alone in her room and let all of those thoughts come rushing in.

"Do you want me to come in for a while?" Damon asked, seeming to read her thoughts. Either that or he was just concerned and hoping that she would let him come inside to watch out for her.

"Yeah, kind of," Elena told him.

Damon took his seatbelt off and began to get out of the car. The pair entered the house together.

* * *

A few minutes later, the pair was lying on Elena's bed. Damon was on top of the covers while Elena was underneath.

"It's weird," Elena commented. "It's like I'm half expecting her to come running through the door and come flop down on the bed to tell me some ridiculous story. I mean it was only a few days ago that we were on her bed talking about how much of an asshole you are."

Damon smirked a little, "I'll take it. I pretty much definitely deserve that."

"Not today," Elena told him. "You've been really good for this whole thing."

Damon resisted the urge to laugh a little at that.

"Not really," He told her. She had always been the one who had been better at handling that type of situation.

"Yes you have," Elena said sternly. "So thanks. …But you should probably go home. I mean Andie must not exactly be thrilled about you spending this much time with me and she's probably waiting at home for you."

Although Elena had not wanted to say it, had not wanted to let Damon leave, she forced those words out since it was only fair and she didn't want to start problems for him just because he was helping her. Although she knew that she should be just as stern about making Damon leave, her tone came out sounding slightly reluctant.

Damon felt bad about, once again, practically forgetting about the other girl.

"No, it's okay," Damon told her. "I can stay for a while longer if you want me to."

"Just until I fall asleep," Elena said, quite possibly trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince him. "And then you really should go home."

Elena didn't want to lie awake all night imprisoned in her thoughts as they went further and further downhill, so instead she decided that she would let Damon distract her.

"Okay," Damon agreed.

Elena reached over and turned the light off and then rolled back onto her pillow and closed her eyes in an attempt to somehow fall asleep.

Within a few seemingly long seconds, her thoughts became too much to bear and she had to speak up.

"Do you think that she's dreaming now?" Elena asked him.

Damon didn't have to ask who she meant.

"I don't know what to think," Damon responded. "I meant there's all those TV shows where people in comas are just wandering in the hospitals out of their bodies and where they're having these crazy dreams and where they can just hear everything going on around them, but I really have no idea what to think."

"Maybe when she wakes up she'll remember it all and tell me some big long story about it," Elena suggested optimistically, smiling a little while her eyes still remained shut.

Damon decided not to make things worse by pointing out that there was a fairly decent chance that Jenna might not wake up. Instead he decided to keep Elena optimistic and happy for the time being, even if it meant that it might be worse later when reality comes crashing down if Jenna doesn't wake up.

"Yeah, maybe," Damon replied. "I'm sure that she'll have something interesting to tell you whether she remembers any of it or not."

They laid there talking quietly for a little while longer before they went into a comfortable silence as Damon watched Elena lay there trying to sleep.

Damon ended up drifting off a few minutes before Elena followed suit.

* * *

The next morning, they both woke up to the sound of the alarm clock next to Elena's bed loudly beeping.

Elena rolled over and turned the alarm off before turning back and noticing that Damon was still in her bed.

Damon opened his eyes to spot Elena looking at him. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and then yawned.

"I thought that you were going to go home last night," Elena pointed out, although she was secretly a little happy to have woken up to find him still there.

"I was going to," Damon told her honestly. "But I must have fallen asleep."

Elena groaned as she got out of her bed, "I'm starting to regret telling Jer that he has to school. Now I have to go. And I don't know, maybe we should both be at the hospital today…"

"You spent the whole weekend at the hospital," Damon commented as he stood up as well. "You could afford a little time away. Besides, if you two keep sitting there all the time then you'll drive yourselves insane."

Elena knew that what he was saying made sense, but she still didn't like the whole idea of leaving Jenna alone and vulnerable all day.

"I don't know if I can even handle school right now," Elena admitted. "I'm going to be so distracted and everyone is going to be constantly giving me pitying looks and searching for any sign that I'm not doing okay and I just really don't want to deal with that right now."

Damon saw the look on Elena's face and walked over and pulled her into a hug.

"Hey, you're probably the toughest girl that I know," Damon told her. "If anyone can handle this, it's you."

Elena smiled into Damon's shoulder. Even if it was just for a moment, she had Captain Cheeseball back.

She made no comment about that though, and silently scolded herself as she reminded herself that Damon had a new girlfriend now.

"I'd better go make sure that Jeremy's actually getting up," Elena said as Damon released her from his grip.

Damon nodded at her and said, "I should probably get going now."

Elena headed out of her room and then turned into Jeremy's to find him lying in bed with the covers pulled over the top of his head. He was clearly trying to pretend that his alarm clock had never gone off.

"Jer, get up," Elena said.

Jeremy didn't say anything in response, but he did roll over underneath the blankets.

"Jeremy, come on," Elena said as she grabbed the covers and began to pull them off.

Jeremy resisted and held them down so that only his head was uncovered.

"It's not like I want to go to school today either," Elena told him. "Believe me; I want to go at least as little as you do."

"Well then let's just not go," Jeremy suggested. "Why can't I be in charge? Just blame me as the reason that you didn't go."

"It's not that easy and you know it," Elena told him. "And besides, Jenna puts me in charge of being the adult most of the time when she's awake and around. Obviously I get to be in charge. Besides, if you were in charge then we would just never do anything."

"That's not true!" Jeremy lied defensively.

"Yes it is," Elena argued. "Now get out of bed. Prove me wrong; show me just how you'd do things if you were in charge."

Jeremy groaned, but threw the covers off and began to sit up nonetheless.

"Good," Elena said. "I'm going to go get ready. And don't even think about going back to bed."

"Yes, Mom," Jeremy said unenthusiastically as he sleepily began to head towards the bathroom.

"Hilarious," Elena said sarcastically as she headed out of the room.

* * *

When she re-entered her room, Damon was still standing in there.

He had just finished sending a text back to Alaric, who had sent him one when he had woken up to find that Damon was still not home.

Elena grabbed a set of clothes out of her closet and then held the outfit up in front of herself.

"Does this outfit say, 'I'm fine so don't even bother asking'?" Elena asked Damon hopefully.

"What's with you Gilbert girls and asking me for fashion advice?" Damon asked. "..I can't tell if you aren't wearing it."

"Fine, wait here," Elena said, deciding that it wouldn't be the end of the world if Damon stayed for just a few minutes longer.

Damon was a little surprised by the request, but did as he had been told nonetheless.

Elena left the room and headed towards the washroom that Jeremy was just walking out of.

Elena returned to her room a few minutes later, fully dressed.

"So?" She asked expectantly as Damon stared at her. "Does it make me look pathetic and in need of constant pestering about whether I'm doing okay, or does it make it look like I'm doing fine and they should keep their questions to themselves."

Damon continued to stare at her, unable to stop himself.

"It's that bad?" Elena asked, turning to exit the room.

"No," Damon said quickly. "It looks really good. They'll probably be too distracted by how hot you look to even begin to question whether you're okay."

Damon only realized what he had said after he had already finished speaking. He chose to go for the approach of pretending that he didn't see anything out of the ordinary and acting like he said things like that to his friends all the time.

All at once something inside Elena snapped as all of the anger that she had been holding in from everything that Damon had done and what had happened to Jenna came to the surface.

She began to laugh a humourless and harsh laugh.

"I cannot believe that you just said that." Elena said with her voice full of fury. "God, why did I even start trusting you again even if it was just for a day and a half? What are you even doing here, Damon?"

"I'm helping you," Damon told her. "That's what friends do."

"Except we aren't friends," Elena shot back. "And I sure as hell don't want your help!"

"That's why you've been clinging to me for the past two days, right?" Damon asked, beginning to feel himself getting angry as well. "We both know that you need my help."

"No, I don't," Elena responded angrily. "Believe it or not I got along fine without you for months. It's not like I just sat around waiting for you to come rescue me from something, you egotistic asshole. I don't need your help. You were just taking advantage of the fact that I was vulnerable to weasel your way back in!"

"Really?" Damon asked. "I'm taking advantage of you?" He chuckled humourlessly. "You have got to fucking be kidding me. I'm not trying to weasel my way back in. You were upset and I tried to help you. God knows I owe it to you."

"I don't care." Elena yelled. "You're just here to try and relieve yourself of guilt and try to even the score to make yourself feel better. Well I'm not going to let my pain make you feel better about yourself. You need to go. I'm fine, I don't need you. Why don't you go back to your girlfriend and see if she has any problems that you can fix to make you feel better about yourself!"

"I'm not doing this for me, idiot!" Damon shouted back. "You clearly aren't okay."

"Oh, so now you're trying to make me feel better by insulting me for a change?" Elena asked. "I don't need your pity. Getting pity from someone who's pitiful is just embarrassing."

"You know what? Maybe I am pitiful, but I'm trying to fix that!" Damon shouted.

"I don't care, Damon! I don't want your help so just get the hell out!" Elena screamed back. "You want to help Ric? Good. But I don't want your help so back off."

"You don't want to be friends with me? Fine," Damon replied viciously. "But a smart girl once told me that you have to talk to someone. That bottling all of that shit up just makes everything worse. So you don't want to talk to me? Whatever. But at least talk to Caroline, or Bonnie, or Stefan, or Matt or whoever the hell you want as long as you talk to someone."

Elena rolled her eyes as he stormed out of the room.

"What was that?" Jeremy asked as he turned into Elena's room after Damon had left.

"Damon's being an ass for a change," Elena told him.

* * *

When Damon Salvatore arrived at home, he instantly headed towards the bedroom. He remained as quiet as possible on his way, not because he was trying to sneak into the bed unnoticed, but because he didn't want to wake Andie up if she was still asleep.

Andie rolled over to face him when he entered the room. She was still about half-asleep.

"Where were you last night?" She asked him groggily.

"I drove Elena and Jeremy home from the hospital so that they could get some sleep since they didn't take a car there," Damon said honestly as he sat down on the edge of the bed. "We were talking and I must have fallen asleep. I was going to come home though."

Damon knew that lying wouldn't help anything, so he saw no real point in it.

"You and Elena?" Andie asked. "..You said 'we were talking'."

"Yeah," Damon admitted, feeling slightly guilty even though nothing had happened between them.

Andie remained silent for a few long seconds as she seemed to be internally debating with herself. Finally she let out a sigh and sat up.

"I know that this is going to come off as really bitchy, and I really don't want that, but," Andie began. "It's just that the whole thing is a little weird. I mean your ex that you're supposedly over had something bad happen and you instantly run to help her. I mean I'm not saying that you were there just for her and not Ric, or that you shouldn't be there for her. But I mean you were there all of visiting hours the first day and then again yesterday too. And even after that you went over there to stay with her and ended up falling asleep there. I mean I've barely seen you during these past few days. And from what I've seen it looks like she hates you. I mean you said one thing to her and she stormed off. Does she even want your help?"

"No, it's not bitchy," Damon told her with a sigh. He knew that the entire situation was more than a little bit off. "And she does need my help. She doesn't hate me; she was just ignoring me to prove a point because she was mad. I swear that we're just friends, maybe not even that much."

"What is she mad at you for?" Andie asked him with a raised eyebrow. "..Is she mad that you're seeing me?"

"No, it's nothing like that," Damon defended. "It's complicated. I mean we didn't exactly have the smoothest of breakups. I was kind of a dick to her afterwards at first, so she was mad about that not about us. In fact last night she was saying that I should get home to you."

"Then how did you end up falling asleep before you left?" Andie asked.

"I said that I could stay a little bit longer if she wanted me to because she still wasn't doing great," Damon said. "And then she asked me to stay until she fell asleep, but I guess that I must have fallen asleep before she did."

Andie sighed, "I'm not saying that you shouldn't be there, but I mean doesn't she have other friends and people to help her. And they aren't there all day every day are they? And even if they are, then she really doesn't need you around the whole time. Does she?"

"Yeah she has other people," Damon admitted. "I mean Caroline and Bonnie came for a couple of hours yesterday, but she needs me." Andie frowned. "And I know how bad that sounds, but we have a complicated past. She was there for me during some tough shit and I owe her big time for that. I have to be there for her."

"What tough shit?" Andie questioned.

"What?" Damon asked, slightly surprised.

"What stuff did she help you through," Andie asked again.

"I don't want to talk about it," Damon said in response, seeming to get a little irritated as he crossed his arms across his chest and looked away from her. "..I don't know if I'm ready to tell you about that stuff yet."

"Right," Andie said in a disappointed and hurt tone. "It's such important and difficult stuff that she helped you through and that she knows everything about, but you can't even tell me what it was?"

"No, Andie. It's not like that," Damon argued.

"I get it," Andie told him. "You still aren't over her. Just admit it, okay? I mean I knew what I was getting into when we started dating. I knew that you were still getting over someone. ..I only have myself to blame for this, right?"

"No," Damon responded. "Andie I do care about you."

"I know you do," Andie said, her eyes looking sad. "Just not as much as you care about her. You're in love with her still and I don't know if you'll ever get over that. I mean the way that you just dropped everything and ran to the hospital the instant that you heard that something was wrong-" Andie cut herself off to stop herself from crying as tears began to form in her eyes and her throat began to swell. "..I really hope that you get her, Damon. You deserve to be happy and have a love like that."

Andie wiped at her eyes to stop the tears before they could get the chance to fall.

Damon felt tears forming in his own eyes as he felt his heart plummeting.

"You aren't leaving, are you?" He asked even though he already knew the answer. He just needed to hear her say it to be sure.

"I have to," Andie said, reaching out and touching his face. "Elena isn't the girl in the way of our relationship; I'm the one standing in between you two. And I can't be that person anymore."

"I don't want you to go," Damon said.

"And I don't want to go," She told him. "And if you want me to stay, then all you have to do is say one little thing. Just honestly tell me that you don't feel anything for her anymore, that your heart doesn't start racing when you see her. That you have absolutely zero romantic feelings towards her."

He was so confused by his emotions. He knew how he felt about Andie. He knew that he cared about her more than he had ever expected to. But he also knew that he had returned to town thinking that he was over Elena, only to discover that he still felt something for her as well.

Damon sat there in silence as he stared at her with tears in his eyes.

"That's what I thought," She said. "..Goodbye, Damon."

She kissed him on the cheek and then got out of the bed and headed towards the bathroom with her suitcase.

She came out a few minutes later, fully dressed.

"I'll miss you," Damon told her.

"I know," Andie said. "But not as much as you miss her."

With that, Andie headed towards the door with her suitcase and walked out of Damon's life.


	24. Chapter 24

"Where's Andie?" Stefan asked once he came home from school to find Damon sitting in his room, alone on the bed.

"She left," Damon said quietly, turning his head up to look at his brother with an expression of sorrow.

"What? Why?" Stefan asked, seeming a little shocked after seeing how close they had been during their first couple of days in Mystic Falls. He raised an eyebrow as he suddenly had an idea. "Elena?"

Damon nodded solemnly.

"Yeah," He said after a few seconds. "She said that I'm not over Elena and she left. I couldn't convince her to stay."

"Sorry, Damon," Stefan said sympathetically, clearly seeing that his brother was in pain.

"Yeah," Damon said in response before moving to stand up.

"Where are you going?" Stefan asked.

"Someone has to make sure that Ric is actually eating and not just sitting there slowly going insane," Damon said, beginning to slightly regain his composure.

"Do you want me to go instead?" Stefan asked.

Stefan wasn't sure whether Damon actually wanted to go to check on Alaric and Elena or if he was just forcing himself to go make sure that Alaric was okay.

"Yeah maybe," Damon admitted.

"Okay, I got it," Stefan said before turning to head for the door.

"Thanks," Damon told him.

Stefan gave his brother one last pitying look as he left the room.

* * *

When Alaric Saltzman arrived home late that night, Stefan was already back home and sound asleep. Damon was just walking back into the living room when Alaric walked through the front door.

"Damon!" Alaric said as he stumbled towards him.

Damon instantly tensed when he saw that Alaric had clearly been drinking.

Alaric put his hands up as he walked even closer and Damon closed his eyes and braced himself out of habit.

Damon opened his eyes when he felt Alaric's arms around him and realized that he was being hugged instead of hit.

"I love you," Alaric told him. "Don't tell Stefan, but you're my favourite."

"Yeah. I love you too, Ric," Damon said with a chuckle as he hugged the other man. "..Clearly someone is a happy drunk."

Alaric finally released his grip after several long seconds.

"Stefan told me about Andie," Alaric told him as he sat down on the couch. "What happened? Elena?"

Damon sat down next to him.

"Kind of," Damon admitted. "Andie said that she couldn't stay here and stand between me and Elena when I so clearly still have feelings for her."

"Well she has a point, doesn't she?" Alaric asked.

"Yeah, which just makes me feel even shittier because it's not like I didn't have feelings for her too," Damon commented. "And Elena just fucking hates me right now."

Alaric began to laugh hysterically, seeming to have trouble catching his breath.

"Thanks," Damon said sarcastically. "Your support really makes me feel good about myself."

"No," Alaric said as he forced himself to calm down and stop laughing. "Sorry... It's just you're sitting here in a pile of self-pity, so convinced that she hates you and meanwhile it's all because you sat in a pile of self-pity pretending to hate her. You guys both believe that the other one thinks the worst of you way too easily."

"I'm glad that you think it's funny," Damon said sarcastically. "Because she does hate me, just like she should. You should have heard her this morning."

"You made Elena work for it before you let her in at all and then you completely shut her out and told her that you hated her for reasons that no one understands. I'm not so sure that you even do… And then you come back and try a couple of times maybe and just give up because it's too difficult?" Alaric asked. "I mean did you even apologize to her for the crap you put her through or did you just try to act all buddy-buddy out of nowhere and wonder why it didn't work?"

Damon realized how accurate Ric's words really were.

"Yeah, I guess," Damon replied finally. "I don't know how the hell I'm ever going to get back from how much I messed things up though. Why would she ever want to be friends with me after that?"

"She did when you were a total douche last year and for a while after your 'break-up' too," Alaric commented. "You just have to show her that you aren't completely hopeless and that you aren't just going to disappear again."

"Yeah, I guess I'll call her tomorrow," Damon said, deciding that it was too late at night to do so then.

"Good," Alaric told him as he got up and began to head towards his bedroom. "I'm off to bed."

"Hey, Ric?" Damon said, stopping Alaric in the doorway. "Thanks... For everything."

"No problem," Alaric told him with a smile before he disappeared into the hallway.

* * *

The next morning as Stefan and Alaric were getting ready for school and Alaric was pretending not to be hung over, Damon dialled Elena's cell number.

"Hello?" Elena answered in a wary tone.

"I'm an ass," Damon told her before she could decide to hang up on him. "And I'm sorry. ...Not just about the recent stuff either, about all of it. I mean I handled all of it completely horribly. Breaking up with you like that, ignoring you and acting like I hated you after, coming back and then acting like we were still friends.. What I said about your outfit yesterday, all of it. And you're right. My reasons for helping you weren't all selfless. But I did want to help you."

"..Yeah well, I'm sorry too," Elena told him. "About calling you pitiful. …And about Andie. Stefan told me last night.."

"Thanks," Damon said awkwardly.

"It wasn't because you were wasting your time helping me, was it?" Elena asked shyly.

"No, it had nothing to do with you," Damon replied.

"Are you sure?" Elena asked, sounding unsure.

It wasn't that Elena necessarily wanted it to be over her or that she thought that it must have been her because there was something going on. It wasn't even that she didn't believe Damon. It was more that she wanted to be a hundred percent positive because she was afraid that she had started a fight by stealing Damon for so long and selfishly asking him to stay until she fell asleep. In fact she had been selfish to ask him to come inside when he had asked her whether she wanted him to. She should have just sent him home right then, maybe even earlier at the hospital. Maybe Damon shouldn't have been there, but Elena wasn't completely blameless in the situation.

"Positive," Damon lied. "She said that she just couldn't handle it anymore and that she needed to go back home and be by herself."

"Well either way I'm sorry," Elena told him genuinely and then her voice became lighter. "..This totally self-centered jerk that I know once told me that you have to talk to someone about that kind of stuff."

"Complain to you about the break-up with Andie?" Damon asked with a slight laugh. "That doesn't sound like a trap or a terrible idea at all."

"I didn't mean me," Elena replied. "I just mean someone because we both know that you kind of suck at talking about things."

"Thanks," Damon said with a laugh since he knew that it was true. "I talked with Ric already. ...So just checking, but am I allowed talking to you now? Or will that make you Hulk out?"

"Talk to me? Yes." Elena decided. "Flirt with me? No."

"Deal," Damon agreed, deciding to at least try to hold back his natural flirtiness.

"I have to go," Elena said. "I have to leave for school."

"Okay," Damon said with a smile. "Bye."

"Bye," Elena said before she hung up the phone.

* * *

That night Alaric went to the hospital to visit Jenna before he came home. When he walked through the doorway he was talking on the phone with someone, clearly in the middle of an argument with someone.

Damon frowned from where he was sitting on the couch playing video games with Stefan. Ric had already been under enough stress lately and it looked like he was getting even more.

Alaric seemed to be so engrossed in the argument that he barely noticed that the boys were there.

"You're kidding, right?" Alaric asked angrily as he headed through to go talk in a different room where they would be less likely to overhear him.

Bits and pieces of the argument made their way into the living room every few minutes.

"You do realize how ridiculously immature you're being, right? But why should I be surprised though?" … "So you're just going to desert her?" … "Don't use that against me." And then finally came, "You know what? Fine. She's probably better off without you anyways."

When Alaric re-entered the room he looked like he was still quite upset over the phone call.

"…Who was that?" Stefan asked after a few seconds.

"My sister," Alaric said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Since when do you have a sister?" Damon asked, turning around to look at Alaric in confusion. He had literally never mentioned her before.

"We don't talk much," Alaric replied. "She tends to avoid me unless she needs something."

"I'm guessing she needs something," Damon commented.

"Yeah, you could say that," Alaric replied. "Apparently she's with this 'great new guy' and they're going to travel together and all oh he's so perfect. Except for the fact that he hates kids and isn't letting her go with him unless she gets rid of her kid. So she wants me to take her five year old daughter so that she can run off with yet another asshole."

"..Oh.." Stefan said, unsure of what else he could say.

Damon remained completely silent as he stared at Alaric, waiting for the words to sink in properly.

"So she's moving here?" Damon finally managed to piece together.

"Yeah," Ric replied.

"When?" Stefan asked.

"A few days… Apparently Lindsey can't wait to get rid of her daughter," Alaric said with a sigh. "Last time that I saw Maddie she was a baby. I doubt she'll even have any idea of who I am…"

* * *

Over the next couple of days, Elena, Alaric, and Jeremy began to return to relatively normal.

* * *

"So is there something going on between you and Damon again?" Bonnie asked Elena as the two girls sat in Bonnie's room with Caroline after school the next day.

"No, we're just friends," Elena responded.

"Well that's what you said the last time," Caroline pointed out. "And we all know that you were lying then."

"Yeah," Bonnie agreed. "And didn't his girlfriend leave town?"

"Maybe it was a lie last time, but this time it isn't," Elena argued. "I'm not getting back together with him after what happened last time. He's just been helping me out, okay? Like friends do. And Andie leaving had nothing to do with me."

"Is that what he told you?" Caroline asked with an arched brow.

"Yes, it is." Elena said in a tone of defiance. Clearly she was not in the mood to listen Caroline overanalyze things.

"Hm, and I wonder why Damon would ever lie about something that could possibly make you feel guilty or reveal his feelings…" Bonnie said in a tone of sarcasm.

"And I wonder why Andie would ever have reason to leave because of the  _friendship_  that you have with Damon…" Caroline said, her tone matching Bonnie's.

"And I mean we both know that Damon never hides things from people or lies, right?" Bonnie continued sarcastically.

"You guys don't," Elena practically begged.

"So, what?" Caroline asked. "He hasn't said or done a single thing since he got back that made you consider taking him back? Or that made it seem like he might want you back? Nothing at all?"

Elena thought about Damon's comments on her costume as well as her outfit and the way that he had stayed and comforted her.

"No," She lied. "There hasn't been anything. And more importantly, I don't  _want_  there to be anything. So please just drop it, alright?"

"Okay," Bonnie said, raising her arms up in a dramatic sign of innocence.

"Geez," Caroline muttered. "We were just asking."

But Elena knew very well that 'just asking' to Bonnie and Caroline meant interrogating until they got the answer that they wanted to hear.

"Well now you know," Elena told them.

"So if there isn't anything going on with  _Damon_ , then how about Elijah and Kol?" Caroline asked. "It seems like you guys have been getting pretty friendly lately."

"Friendly as in  _friends_ ," Elena told her.

"Well then maybe friendly wasn't the right word," Bonnie argued. "I think that flirty fits better, don't you Caroline?"

"Definitely," Caroline agreed instantaneously.

"Kol hits on everyone," Elena pointed out. "It's not exactly surprising that he was flirting with me."

"Yeah, but Elijah doesn't hit on everyone," Caroline pointed out while shooting her friend a cat-like smirk. "Does he, Elena?"

"No, and he doesn't hit on me either," Elena argued. "God, I swear that if you two were guys that you'd accuse me of liking the other one."

"And you would like both of us because we would make sexy guys," Bonnie said jokingly.

"We saw you talking to him at the party," Caroline pointed out. "There was totally sexual tension."

"But I thought that I was still completely hung up over Damon?" Elena asked sarcastically.

"I'm not so sure that you don't like all three of them," Bonnie said. "But you definitely like at least one of them so you need to figure it out and tell your best friends who it is."

Elena gave her friend a look of annoyance as she chose to ignore her.

"I bet that it's Damon," Caroline suggested. "I mean she never even got closure on that and now all of a sudden he's back and single and playing the hero again. Hell, he was playing the hero when he wasn't even single. And the way that he was worried about her was not in the way of a boy who just wants to be friends, was it?"

Elena crossed her arms, clearly not enjoying being talked about as if she wasn't even there.

"Yeah, but just because there was no closure, it doesn't mean that she fell for him again right away," Bonnie argued. "I mean, Elijah was here the whole time that Damon wasn't. And I didn't see him smiling like that with anyone else at the party."

"Yeah, but that's more saying that he likes her than that she likes him," Caroline said.

"So was your thing about Damon," Bonnie pointed out.

"You guys, I am standing right here," Elena said loudly. "I can hear every single word that you're saying as you pretend that I'm not in the room."

"Well I'd gladly include you in the conversation if you had anything to contribute to it," Caroline said as she turned to look at Elena with a satisfied smirk.

"And what if I don't like any of them that way?" Elena challenged.

"Then that's bullshit and we all know it," Bonnie told her.

"Yeah, well if I do like any of them, then you figured it out before I did," Elena replied. "So can we drop the conversation until I actually like someone?"

"Fine," Caroline said. "…I'm hungry."

"Want to go to the Grill?" Bonnie asked.

"Sure," Elena agreed as Caroline nodded her head.

* * *

A few minutes later, the trio walked into the Mystic Grill together.

When they saw that Damon and Stefan were sitting at one table while Elijah and Rebekah were sitting at another, Bonnie began to smirk at Elena and Caroline raised her eyebrows suggestively.

"Don't even," Elena told them.

"Where are we going to sit, Elena?" Caroline asked, her tone sounding as if she had just asked Elena who she was going to choose to marry.

"How about at this empty table," Elena suggested, clearly not giving into Caroline's obvious attempt at trying to figure out who Elena liked.

"Well fine, if you want to be boring," Bonnie muttered as she sat down.

"Excuse me for deciding not to feed your imaginations," Elena said as she sat down.

* * *

Damon's eyes had moved to Elena the instant that the three girls had entered the restaurant. When Damon dragged his eyes away to move his attention back to his table a few seconds later, Stefan was smirking at him from across the table.

Damon grabbed a fry and dipped it in ketchup before smearing the ketchup across his brother's face to get rid of the smirk.

Damon was now the one smirking as he raised his eyebrows at his brother once.

"You're a dick," Stefan told him, although he was laughing as he had said it and there was a smile placed on his lips.

"Sorry, my hand slipped," Damon replied with the smirk still plastered on his face.

"Oh, I'm so sure," Stefan said unconvincingly as he wiped the condiment off of his face with a napkin.

"Oh it totally was," Damon said as he dipped another fry in ketchup.

Stefan saw that one coming and attempted to dodge it unsuccessfully. He just made sure that he got a large line of it across the side of his face.

"Whoops," Damon said in a falsely apologetic tone.

"Seriously?" Stefan asked as he once again wiped his face clean. "You really want to start this right here? What are you two years old?"

Damon tapped his finger against his chin as if he was deeply considering it before the smirk returned to his face and he reached for another fry.

That time, Stefan reacted faster as he grabbed the fry out of Damon's mouth and popped it into his mouth.

"That's so incredibly Stefan of you," Damon complained. "Of course you would just stop me from getting ketchup on you, but you wouldn't actually retaliate or do anything interesti-"

Damon was cut off by his brother throwing the entire little jar of ketchup into his face.

Damon began to laugh happily even though his entire face was now covered in ketchup.

"Apparently I was wrong," Damon said. "I did not think you would do that."

"That's an attractive look for you," Stefan told him with a smirk. He had to start laughing after that, unable to supress it for any longer.

* * *

Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline all turned to see what was going on when they heard the loud laughter coming from the table where the Salvatores were sitting. When they did they saw Damon's face covered with ketchup as Stefan grabbed a fry off of his brother's plate and swiped some ketchup onto it off of Damon's face before eating it.

* * *

The shock began to wear off a little bit as Damon grabbed his own napkin and began to attempt to clean the ketchup off of his face.

"Did I get all of it?" Damon asked after a few minutes.

"I don't know, I can't really tell in this lighting," Stefan lied his ass off.

"Yeah, thanks," Damon said sarcastically as he got up and headed toward the bathroom to go wash his face off.

* * *

Elena was the only one sitting on the right side of the table to make eye contact with Damon as he walked past the table where the three girls sat on his way.

When Damon saw her smirking at him and looking very amused, he just shook his head at her and kept walking. On his way past her, he ruffled her hair and pushed her head forward playfully as he continued to walk.

Elena rolled her eyes at that before turning her attention back towards her friends that were sitting across from him.

"You lying whore," Caroline accused her.

Elena rolled her eyes, "Thanks, Care. And I wasn't lying."

"That was not nothing," Bonnie agreed with Caroline.

"Oh my god," Elena said dramatically. "Am I not allowed to be friends with any guys without you guys hounding me about it?"

"Stefan, Matt, Klaus," Bonnie listed.

"That's because Stefan and Matt are together and Klaus is with Caroline," Elena pointed out. "Otherwise you two would probably suspicious that I want to get with them too. What, do you guys honestly think that I'll just go out with the first guy to ask me?"

Caroline opened her mouth to go respond, but then immediately stopped herself as she spotted Damon heading back their way.

"Quick question," Bonnie said, causing Damon to stop next to their table. "How did you manage to get an entire thing of ketchup on your face?"

"Don't underestimate Stefan's likeliness to actually take part in a food fight," Damon warned her. "He escalates things very quickly."

"Well then maybe you shouldn't have started throwing food at him if you didn't want him to hit you back," Caroline pointed out.

"Who says that I didn't want him to?" Damon asked with a lopsided grin.

"Right, so you wanted to get hit in the face with a whole thing of ketchup?" Elena asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I know, what's wrong with me?" Damon asked in an amused tone.

Caroline shot Elena a meaningful look from behind Damon.

Elena rolled her eyes at her.

"What?" Damon asked, wondering what he had done to earn himself an eye roll.

"Not you," Elena said. She shot Caroline a short glare before turning her attention back to Damon.

Damon turned and faced the other two girls to look at them scrutinizingly.

Each of them shot him a look of innocence.

He turned to look back at Elena who was giving him a look that closely resembled that of the other girls'.

"Girls," Damon muttered under his breath before walking away to return to his table.

All three of them began to snicker a little as he left.

"We don't think that you'll just go out with any guy who asks you," Caroline responded once he was gone, answering the question that Elena had asked before he had come to the table. "We just think that you should quit hiding who you have feelings for from us."

"I'm not hiding anything from you," Elena told them. "I don't know who I have feelings for right now. If I did then I would tell you guys. I promise."

"You'd better," Bonnie said in a tone that was supposed to come off as threatening.

* * *

"You've still got a little bit there," Stefan said with a smirk as his brother sat back down.

"I'm not falling for it," Damon told him, although secretly he began to wonder if his brother was telling the truth or not. "I just checked in a mirror."

"Damn," Stefan said. "If only you weren't so obsessed with your own reflection."

"I knew that it would have to come in handy one day," Damon said with a smirk.

"Well you've been preparing for this moment your whole life," Stefan teased. "Now what are you going to do with your time?"

"I don't know, I might have to get a new lame hobby," Damon replied. "Like maybe making those stupid little model cars."

Stefan chuckled a little.

"What?" Damon asked.

"I'm just imagining the bitch fit when you can't make one of them right," Stefan explained. "It involves a lot of swearing and breaking the entire car."

"Sounds accurate," Damon agreed. "Well then I'll just have to stick to being self-obsessed. After all, it did save the day today."

* * *

Elena was just coming back from the ladies' washroom when she spotted Elijah getting up from his table after Rebekah had already left the building.

"What, she couldn't even wait for you before she left?" Elena asked him.

"Rebekah got texted by a boy asking her to hang out," Elijah responded. "I didn't stand a chance. I'm lucky that I even got an explanation before she left."

"Yeah, she may be just a little bit boy crazy," Elena said with a slight laugh.

"Yeah, but at least she's happy and it isn't boy troubles," Elijah responded. "I'm pretty sure that she hates the fact that she has three brothers and no sisters because none of us have the slightest idea what to say when that happens."

"A good rule to go by is not to talk unless she specifically asks you too," Elena told him. "Otherwise just listen to her talk for a while and nod occasionally."

"I'll have to remember that for next time," Elijah told her with a smile.

"Oh and every single question is probably going to be a trap," Elena added. "But not answering them is worse than answering them most of the time."

"You act like this?" Elijah asked curiously, wondering how Elena knew that.

"I was the bomb diffuser for Jenna whenever she had guy drama," Elena told him and then began to laugh a little. "Which was pretty much all the time. But I could help you out for a while until I have to go back to being the keeper of Jenna's sanity."

"Well how can I say no to an expert's help?" He asked her.

Elena ignored the faces that Bonnie and Caroline were making at her from where they still sat at the table.

* * *

When Damon noticed Elena and Elijah talking together he suddenly had a hard time taking his eyes away from them. Elena had said that they weren't dating, but that didn't mean that there wasn't anything going on between them. And judging by the way that she was giggling and how he was smiling at her there definitely was.

Damon snapped back to his own table when he heard Stefan's voice calling his name.

"Damon!" Stefan said.

Somehow Damon got the feeling that it hadn't been the first time that Stefan had said his name during the last few minutes.

"Yeah, what?" Damon asked, forcing his eyes off of the pair and back onto his brother.

"Good, so you're back," Stefan said, seeming a little amused by how distracted Damon had gotten. "I was a little worried there for a second."

"Funny," Damon said. "You know you're just full of surprises tonight. Do you have any other surprises that you need to tell me about? …Are you pregnant?" Damon forces his face to look perfectly serious and concerned. "Is it the hormones, is that what's making you weirdly fun tonight?"

"Shut up," Stefan told him with a smirk. "Maybe it wouldn't be so boring spending time with me if you did anything other than talk about how boring I am the whole time."

"Well you aren't terrible," Damon replied. "You should give yourself more credit, Stefan."

Although Damon was still wearing his joking smirk, there was an underlying seriousness in his tone.

"You're right," Stefan said, suddenly standing up.

"Where are you going?" Damon asked.

"I have to go stare at myself in the mirror for a while so that I can be just like you," Stefan told him.

Damon began to laugh loudly.

"That's a strange goal to shoot for," He replied.

A few seconds passed.

"..So what, you aren't going to sit back down or..?" Damon asked.

Stefan rolled his eyes and then sat back down.

* * *

Elijah left after talking to Elena for a few minutes.

Elena headed back to the table where Caroline and Bonnie were sitting.

Elena had to give them credit; they didn't say a single word about Damon or Elijah once she returned. But at the same time, she didn't owe them too much because of the smirks that they were giving her.

"So, what did I miss?" She asked.


	25. Chapter 25

On Sunday evening, Damon was sitting in the living room when Alaric walked in with a little blonde girl who was clutching his hand.

When Damon turned to look over at her, Maddie looked up at him in silence and took a step closer to Alaric.

"That's Damon," Alaric said. "I promise he isn't scary. He just dresses like a dork to try to look tough."

Damon smiled over at her as she turned to look at him with her bright blue eyes.

Neither of the men seemed to really know what to say in the situation.

"I'm Maddie," The girl said shyly.

"Hi," Damon said with a slight wave.

"Hi," Maddie said, letting go of Ric's hand and taking a few hesitant steps forward.

"I'll be back in a minute," Alaric said as he went to go take her bag to what would now be her room.

As he walked out of the room, Maddie slowly walked over to the couch and sat down in the empty spot next to Damon.

"What are you watching?" She asked.

"Some game show," Damon told her. It had been the only thing that was on.

"Okay," Maddie said as she watched the screen.

Alaric smiled when he walked back into the room to find Maddie sitting on the couch with Damon and watching TV.

* * *

Stefan had been out with Matt and came home a couple of hours later.

Maddie sat colouring while listening to the others talking for a while before she suddenly looked up and asked, "Do you know how to braid hair?"

She seemed to be asking all of them.

"No," Damon responded as Stefan said, "Sorry."

"We're all a little useless when it comes to hair," Alaric told her.

* * *

That evening as Alaric was trying to finish off marking some tests so that he could go visit Jenna and Stefan was working on his homework, Maddie seemed to get a sudden burst of energy and drop in her patience level.

"I'm bored!" She announced as she stood up and began to walk throughout the room where Stefan and Alaric were working and over to Stefan. "What're you doing?"

"Homework," He answered.

"Why?" She asked.

"Because it's due tomorrow," Stefan responded.

"That's boring," She complained before going to go look over shoulder down at the paper in his hands. "Are you doing boring stuff?"

"I'm marking tests," Alaric responded.

"It's so boring here," Maddie complained. "You guys don't have anything fun to do."

Damon, who had been walking through the hallway and overheard most of the conversation, decided to enter the room and help out. He knew that Alaric was already more than a little stressed out without a five year old complaining at him while he tried to work.

"Hey, are you hungry?" He asked Maddie as he entered the room.

"Yeah, kind of," She responded.

"Let's go get something to eat and leave these boring people behind," He suggested.

Maddie looked towards Alaric as if she was waiting for permission. He gave her a nod and then she turned back to face Damon.

"Okay," She said. "Where are we going?"

"There's a restaurant not far from here," He told her.

"Can we walk there?" She asked curiously.

"Sure," Damon said as he headed towards the front door with her following shortly behind.

Alaric shot Damon a thankful look as Damon opened the door to leave.

Maddie reached her hand up for Damon's hand as they went to go step outside. Damon seemed a little surprised at first, but he quickly took her hand after a second.

* * *

When they entered the Mystic Grill a few minutes later, Damon spotted Klaus, Caroline, and Bonnie sitting together at a table.

"Do you still want your hair braided?" Damon asked her.

Maddie nodded.

"Well I see a couple of girls who I bet would braid it for you," Damon said as he began to lead her over to the table where his friends were sitting.

"Where did you get a kid from?" Klaus asked with a raised eyebrow once Damon reached the table.

"It's Ric's niece," Damon answered. "She's staying with us now."

"Aww, she's so cute," Bonnie gushed.

"What's your name?" Caroline asked, leaning over to where Maddie was still holding onto Damon's hand.

Maddie half-hid behind Damon as she peeked out at Caroline.

"It's Maddie," Damon answered for her when he saw that she probably wasn't going to answer for herself. "And we were wondering if one of you could braid her hair because she lives with a bunch of useless guys."

Maddie peeked out a little more.

"Sure," Caroline said. "Do you want one braid or two?"

"My mom usually gives me two," Maddie responded as she stepped out from behind Damon.

Caroline shared a look with Damon at that. Through their gazes she silently asked about Maddie's mom and he silently responded that he'd explain later.

Caroline quickly put the little girl's hair into two braids, one on either side of her head.

As Maddie stepped away from her, Damon began to ask, "Do you want to-"

But Maddie was already gone, having run off towards an empty table on the other side of the restaurant.

"..Thank Caroline," He finished awkwardly as he watched Maddie go. "Sorry."

"No problem, she's adorable," Caroline responded.

"Yeah, well I guess I'm sitting over there," Damon said as he looked over to where Maddie had stopped at a table and was sitting down.

Damon turned and walked over to where she was and sat down across from her.

The pair quickly decided what they were eating.

* * *

Once the waiter had taken their order, Maddie asked, "How come you and Stefan call Uncle Alaric by his first name if he's your dad?"

"He isn't our real dad, he adopted us last year," Damon told her.

"What happened to your real parents?" She asked.

"My mom left us a little over five years ago," Damon responded. "And my dad was a bad guy so Ric let us stay with him instead."

"What did your dad do?" She asked.

"He used to hurt me," Damon responded honestly.

"I never met my dad," Maddie told him.

* * *

Jeremy and Elena entered the Grill together and began to head towards the table where Bonnie, Caroline, and Klaus were already sitting.

As Elena walked, Damon watched her.

* * *

"Who's that girl you're staring at?" Maddie asked him.

"I wasn't staring at her, I was looking at her," Damon said defensively as he turned to look back at Maddie. "And her name's Elena."

"Is she your girlfriend?" Maddie asked.

* * *

Meanwhile the Gilberts had just sat down at the other table.

"Where did Damon get a little girl from?" Jeremy asked, causing Elena to look over there and wonder the same thing.

* * *

"No, we're just friends," Damon responded.

"I saw Stefan kiss a boy when I was looking through the window before he came inside," Maddie told him.

"Yeah, that's Matt," Damon said. "They're boyfriends."

"Okay," Maddie said. "So do you have a girlfriend or boyfriend?"

"Neither," He said.

"Does Uncle Ric have one?" She asked.

"He has a girlfriend," Damon told her.

"When do I get to see her?" Maddie asked as the waiter brought them their food.

"I don't know," Damon said. "It's complicated because she's in the hospital right now."

"Why, what happened?" Maddie asked him.

"She was in a car accident, now she's in a coma," Damon responded. "..For someone who was so shy this morning you sure have a lot of questions."

"What's a coma?" Maddie asked.

"She's sleeping, but they can't wake her up," Damon told her. "And they don't know when she will wake up." Damon chooses to leave out the fact that she might not wake up.

"Oh," Maddie said. "What's your favourite colour?"

"Black," Damon answered.

"That's boring," Maddie told him.

"Why, what's yours?" Damon asked.

"Purple," She answered. "What's your favourite animal?"

Damon thought for a second, "Crows."

"Crows are gross," She answered.

Damon smirked, "No, it's actually probably tigers or something. What's yours?"

"Penguins," Maddie told him. "What's your favourite superhero?"

"The Hulk," Damon said with a slight grin.

"Why? He doesn't even really do anything," Maddie pointed out.

"That's not true," Damon told her. "I got saved by the Hulk once."

"No, you didn't," Maddie argued. "Everybody knows that the Hulk isn't real."

"That's just because the Hulk keeps her identity secret," Damon responded.

" _Her_?" Maddie asked. "I don't believe you."

"If I tell you then you have to keep it a secret," Damon told her. "But Elena's the Hulk. Seriously, you do not want to get that girl angry."

Maddie looked doubtful, but looked over at the table seeming to wonder a little.

"Well I like Batman," She said as she turned to look back at him.

* * *

Once they were finished eating they walked back home to find that Stefan was still there, but that Alaric had gone to visit Jenna.

* * *

The next day Maddie began kindergarten so Damon was alone and bored all day.

After school Alaric was going to pick Maddie up, so Damon decided to go meet Stefan in the parking lot.

"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked when he saw Damon.

"I'm bored," He answered. "Let's do something."

* * *

The pair ended up going to go hang out at the Grill for a while.

They were on their second round of pool when Elena, Rebekah and Kol walked in and headed over towards them.

They hung out as a group for a while and Damon was glad to find that he and Elena were getting along alright in the group setting. He resisted all urges to flirt and managed to keep himself out of trouble.

* * *

After a while, Stefan left to go meet up with Matt and took the car.

* * *

A few minutes later, the rest decided that it was time to go home. Kol and Rebekah drove off and then it was just Elena and Damon.

Damon decided to walk Elena home from the Grill since he had to walk anyways.

There was a cold breeze going, and Damon noticed that Elena seemed to be getting a little cold.

"Here, take this," Damon said, holding his jacket out to Elena.

Elena looked leerily in between Damon's face and his outstretched jacket as if a venomous cobra was going to emerge from the sleeve.

A few seconds went by before Damon decided to speak again.

"I swear this time I won't have a bitch fit afterwards," He said, gazing into her eyes seriously.

Elena looked into his eyes, analyzing them, for a few long seconds as she tried to make a decision.

"I promise," Damon said seriously.

"Fine," Elena replied, taking the jacket from him and pulling it on.

A smirk grew on her face as soon as the jacket was on, still unzipped.

"But if you aren't going to have a bitch fit, then I guess that means that I can keep it," Elena said through a giggle before she began to run ahead of him.

"Hey, I didn't say that," Damon said as a grin began to form on his lips.

"What?" Elena asked loudly, pretending not to know what he had said. "I can't hear you from all the way over here!"

She continued to run.

Damon shook his head and then paused for a second before he began to chase after her.

Elena continued to run, still giggling as she went.

Damon caught up to her and grabbed her around the waist from behind and pulled her towards him.

His chin was resting just over her shoulder as he whispered in her ear, "Gotcha."

"Are you sure about that?" Elena asked before breaking free and beginning to run away once again.

This time she ran backwards, grinning back at him while she moved.

Damon rolled his eyes and then continued to chase after her.

Not long afterwards, Damon grabbed her by the arm and caught her with an arm under her lower back before she could hit the ground from falling backwards.

For several seconds they just remain there, with their faces so close that they were almost touching, as he held her there.

They stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds before Damon's flicked down to her lips.

He ever so slowly pulled her upwards until her lips met his.

He continued to pull her up, bending his own body back up as he kept their lips attached and kissed her hard.

After a few long seconds, Elena placed her hand on the center of Damon's chest and pushed him away a little.

"Damon, I can't," She said after turning her head downwards so that it was next to his shoulder.

He still held her close.

"..I just can't after last time," Elena whispered. "It's like I just-"

"Can't trust me," Damon finished for her solemnly.

God, why had he done that? She had said no flirting. Why was he always such a dumbass?

"Not that way," Elena said in agreement ever so quietly.

Damon chuckled once, a humourless laugh.

"Yeah, I guess that's my fault," He said with a frown.

Elena looked up at him with sad eyes.

"I should, uh-" Damon tried awkwardly as he removed his arms from her waist and took a step back from her. "I should go home... They're probably wondering where I am... We're on your street now anyways..."

"Damon, you don't-" Elena began to say.

But it was already too late; Damon was already out of earshot and quickly walking away in the opposite direction.

"-have to go," Elena whispered the end of her sentence to herself in defeat as she looked down at Damon's jacket.

She sighed as she watched him turn the corner. Once he was out of sight, she peeled her eyes away from the corner and began to head back down her street and towards her house.

* * *

When she arrived at the house and walked inside she just sat down and crumpled against the inside of the door after shutting it.

She began to sob uncontrollably, letting out all of those emotions that she had been bottling up over the last while.

She cried because of what had happened with Damon and how sad he had looked afterwards. She cried because she couldn't let herself trust him. She cried because she was afraid that Damon wouldn't handle the rejection well and would end up going back to ignoring her and yelling at her. She cried because the one person that she wanted to talk to the most about it was lying in a hospital bed in a coma that there was a decent chance that she would never wake up from.

As she sat there weeping, she felt any and all control over her emotions dwindling further and further away. She began to break down even further until she just had no control whatsoever and she was hysterically wailing over all of her problems.

The worst part was that the main person other than Jenna that Elena would really want to talk to when she was upset like that was Damon. And she couldn't just go sob to Damon about how she had rejected him and how broken he looked. In fact there was a chance that she wouldn't be able to go to Damon with any of her problems from then on if he took the rejection badly.

What if this was the time that he would finally completely, one hundred percent give up on her? What if now he would just hate her forever and there would be no way to even remotely get him back? What if he was just locked into jackass mode around her for the rest of her life?

When Jeremy heard her sobbing from all the way upstairs in his room, with his headphones on, he instantly rushed downstairs to check if she was alright since Jenna wasn't there to handle that job.

"Elena, are you okay?" Jeremy asked, slowing as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

He knew that it was an incredibly stupid question. He knew that his twin was clearly not alright, but he just hadn't known what else to say and it had come out reflexively.

"I don't know," Elena told him, wiping at her eyes embarrassedly. "It's just too much Jer; it's all just way too much."

Jeremy sat down next to her, noticing the fact that she was wearing Damon's leather jacket.

"Is it something that Damon did?" Jeremy asked her, ready to go down to Damon's house and give him a piece of his mind if it was.

"No," Elena said definitively before beginning to waver. "...Well not really. ...Kind of. But I mean it's more than just that..."

"What did he do?" Jeremy asked, his hand clenching up into a fist.

"It's nothing bad," Elena told him. "It wasn't his fault."

"Right, it's nothing bad," Jeremy said sarcastically. "That's why I found you sitting on the floor crying, right? Because it wasn't his fault and whatever he did wasn't bad at all."

"That's exactly why I'm crying," Elena said, noticing just how truthful Jeremy's sarcastic words had actually been. "And because of Jenna and just everything has sucked lately."

"Fine," Jeremy said. "If you aren't going to tell me what that bastard did, then he can tell me himself."

Jeremy moved to get up, but Elena grabbed his wrist to stop him before he fully could.

"Jer, don't," Elena said as she looked into his eyes with her serious and pleading ones. "I promise that he didn't do anything wrong, okay? Just leave him alone."

She figured that Damon had already been hurt enough for one night without thinking that she had sent Jeremy after him to try and keep him away from her. God, Elena wished that Jenna was there instead to help her instead of just getting mad on her behalf. Not that it was really Jeremy's fault that he didn't know how to handle the situation.

Jeremy paused, but didn't sit back down. They held eye contact for a long minute and just as Jeremy began to open his mouth to argue, the phone began to ring loudly.

Elena gave him a look that told him to go answer it, so Jeremy left the room to go pick up the phone.

* * *

He came back a few minutes later looking a little dazed, but with a slight smile on his face.

"Jenna's awake."


	26. Chapter 26

Elena and Jeremy had arrived at Jenna's hospital room and hugged her before they sat down in the chairs beside the bed.

"How long have I been asleep for?" Jenna asked.

"Just over a week," Elena told her. "You got into the accident on a Saturday and today's a Monday."

"So then I must not have missed that much, right?" Jenna asked hopefully.

The twins remained silent since they both knew that it wasn't the truth.

Jenna was just about to ask how much she had missed when Alaric walked through the door.

Jenna smiled at the sight of him even though she was embarrassed of her bedhead from sleeping for over a week, which was completely ridiculous when he had been visiting her while she was in the coma.

Alaric walked over and leaned down to kiss her, but Jenna twisted her head away and brought her arm up and weakly attempted to stop him.

"No, I still have super bad morning breath," Jenna told him. "Sleeping for over a week morning breath."

"I don't care, I've been waiting for over a week to do this," He responded.

Jenna reluctantly brought her arm back down and he kissed her.

Once he pulled away, he chuckled a little and said, "Yeah that is pretty bad."

"Hey, I warned you," Jenna said as she hit him on the arm.

He couldn't tell if she had meant to hit him playfully or actually hurt him since her arm was so weak that he barely felt the hit.

* * *

Over the next hour they all talked, telling Jenna stories of things that she had missed. They did most of the talking since Jenna's throat was still pretty dry and sore. Alaric decided not to tell her about Maddie quite yet and Elena didn't say a word about Damon.

In fact Elena didn't say too many words about anything and finally Jenna had to ask, "Okay, what happened?"

"Nothing," Elena responded a little too quickly.

"Come on, I can tell that something's wrong," Jenna responded.

"Damon's a jackass, that's what's wrong," Jeremy answered for Elena before she could deny it any further. "And Elena refuses to tell me what he did."

"I told you that he didn't do anything wrong," Elena said, clearly upset with her brother. "You just won't listen to me!"

"Excuse me if I find you a little hard to believe when you're sitting there crying and telling me that whatever happened wasn't his fault," Jeremy responded just as angrily. "You've basically told me that Damon was involved and he did something that made you this upset, but that somehow it magically isn't his fault and that's bullshit."

Alaric remained silent as he listened in and wondered what was going on. Alaric had only seen Damon for a minute after Damon had arrived home before Alaric had put Damon in charge of Maddie and left for the hospital.

"I know that I'm a little behind here, but I thought that we were blaming Damon for everything," Jenna commented, trying to figure out what they were fighting about.

"Well now apparently we're letting Damon get away with everything," Jeremy replied to Jenna before he turned back to face his sister. "Seriously, do I have to go ask him what he did? Because I'll go right now if you want."

"Oh my god, Jeremy. Just stop!" Elena said dramatically. She really wished that Alaric wasn't there for this fight. Or actually she just wished that Jeremy hadn't started the fight in general. "I'm saying that it wasn't his fault because it wasn't. He was walking me home and then we were joking around and he ended up kissing me. I told him that I couldn't and he said that it was because I couldn't trust him and that he didn't blame me and you should have seen the look on his face. And then he just left and I tried to stop him, but he just kept going. And now he's probably going to start ignoring me again and telling me that he hates me and I just can't even handle that again. And it's just like last time. I mean I even have his stupid jacket again so I get to look forward to getting yelled at for that again. But at least I know that he'll talk to me for long enough to threaten me. And every single thing that you say and do is just making everything ten times worse, Jer!"

Elena desperately tried to wipe the tears away from her eyes.

"This isn't my fault!" Jeremy argued. "And don't you dare say that it isn't his. If he hadn't acted like such a colossal jerk the first time then you wouldn't have to be so afraid that he's going to ignore you and freak out at you. If he was a normal person maybe you'd feel a little bad and maybe you'd be afraid that things would be a little weird, but you wouldn't expect to be threatened and screamed at and ignored over it."

There was a short silence before a new voice spoke up.

"…Wow, I have  _really_  awkward timing," Damon commented from the doorway where he stood looking very pale as he held onto Maddie's hand.

Damon looked over at Elena's tearstained face, feeling even guiltier than he had before.

"Damon's not a jerk," Maddie defended quietly.

"I really am sometimes," Damon responded even quieter. "It depends on the day."

Maddie face dropped into a frown that was quickly replaced with a smirk as she said, "I knew that you liked Elena. You said that you didn't, but you kissed her so that means you do."

"Maddie," Damon said in a tone that he hoped would convey how much he wanted her to stop talking.

"It's not like they don't already know too," Maddie defended herself.

"I thought that you guys said that I was only asleep for a little over a week," Jenna responded. "Where did Damon get a kid from? ...Whose kid is that?"

Damon's eyes widened and he became even more flustered as he realized just how much of a mistake he had made in showing up there.

Damon turned to shoot Alaric a guilty and apologetic look as he said, "I completely forgot that Jenna didn't know about her. She just kept asking me if she could go for over an hour straight and I just couldn't take it anymore… Why am I so stupid today?" Damon looked down at Maddie and said, "Come on, we're going for a walk."

"Why? We just got here," Maddie whined.

"Because Uncle Ric needs to talk to Jenna and  _I_  need to talk to  _you_ ," Damon responded, turning to try and pull her out of the room by the hand.

"Can Elena come too?" Maddie asked.

"If she wants," Damon said exasperatedly. "But that's probably the last thing that she wants to do right now."

"Why?" Maddie asked as Damon finally managed to get her out of the doorway.

"Because I did something that I shouldn't have," Damon responded, trying to maneuver her out of earshot of the others.

"You mean kissing her?" Maddie asked.

"Yes." Damon told her as he finally managed to get her far enough away that the others wouldn't still be able to hear them.

* * *

"Well I don't think that he hates you at least," Jenna commented once Damon was gone before she turned back to face Alaric. "Did he say that you're her uncle?"

* * *

"Why was kissing her bad?" Maddie asked.

"Because everything that Jeremy said was right," Damon told her. "Elena used to be my girlfriend, but then I broke up with her and was a total jerk and now we're supposed to be just friends and I'm not supposed to do anything to mess that up."

"What'd you do?" Maddie continued to pry.

"Elena was completely perfect and I was entirely in love with her," Damon began to tell her. "I still am completely in love with her. But when I realized that the first time, I got scared. Because I knew that she was too good for me and that one day she was going to figure that out. And I was stupid, so I decided to break up with her then so that we didn't end up getting even more attached to each other before then. But I don't know, maybe she wouldn't have realized. Or maybe she wouldn't have ever thought that I wasn't good enough; I mean she fell for me when I was at a pretty low point and she helped me through it… But now I definitely don't deserve her and everybody knows it."

Damon wasn't entirely sure of why he was telling all of this to Maddie when he hadn't told it to anyone else, but now that he had started to it felt good to be getting it off of his chest and he knew that he needed to finish the story.

"I was going to break up with her, but I kept seeing her and knowing that I couldn't make myself do it," Damon continued. "So I ignored her for a few days and she had no idea why. And when Stefan asked me why I was upset I was stupid and told him that I had already broken up with Elena when I hadn't. I figured that I'd do it before he talked to her the next day and it would be like I hadn't even lied. But then I wimped out again and Elena found out that we were broken up from Stefan in the middle of class. And like that wasn't bad enough, I kept ignoring her and I told her that I hated her in the hopes that she would give up on me and I said all of these lies to try to get her to hate me because I was stupid enough to think that it would be easier that way. And I kept trying to help her while trying to pretend that I didn't care about her and I freaked out at her for things that were my fault. And I didn't talk to her for a really long time and she had no idea why. And then after almost a year I just came back and started trying to act like friends and I told her about my new girlfriend, which I don't even know why I did that…"

Maddie was staring at him intently.

"And I never even apologized to her, I just went straight into trying to be friends again while acting like a selfish jerk because I thought that I was over her and that I could be friends with her now," Damon continued. "But I wasn't over her. I wasn't over her at all. And even after I told her that I was sorry for everything, it still shouldn't have been anywhere near enough. But Elena gave me another chance anyways. She said that we could be friends as long as I didn't try to be anything more and then I was stupid and kissed her. Because that's what I do, I mess things up. And if I wasn't so selfish I would leave her alone entirely. I'd let her date Elijah or Kol or whoever she wanted and I wouldn't even try to pretend to be her friend. But now I convinced her to be friends so even if I could convince myself to leave her alone, I wouldn't be able to because there'd be no way to do it without having her think that I hate her and I can't do that to her again."

Damon frowned as he looked up at Maddie.

"You can't tell any of this to anyone though," Damon told her. "Because if she ever finds this out I want it to be from me. And you have to stop talking about me and her in front of her the way you did before."

Damon heard someone clear their throat and turned around to look at the person who had done it.

"How long have you been standing there?" Damon asked nervously.


	27. Chapter 27

_"How long have you been standing there?" Damon asked nervously._

"Long enough to hear the entire story," Jeremy responded as he crossed his arms over his chest. "And you're right; if you weren't such a self-centered jerk then you would have just left her alone. But no, you're Damon. You have to weasel your way back in just to hurt her again."

Jeremy really wanted to swear at Damon, but forced himself to censor his words for Maddie's sake.

"How many chances do you think that you're going to get?" Jeremy asked angrily. "Because you were a total jerk and then everybody gave you a second chance when Elena got you to come back. And I was stupid enough to think that maybe we were friends before you 'broke up with' Elena and started acting like a complete jerk. And still you got another chance on the night of the Tyler thing when you took a break from being a jerk to help us. But you just went right ahead and threw away that chance five minutes later. And then you came back and we gave you another chance after Jenna got into the coma and you did something to upset Elena once again. And still you got another chance after apologizing to her and agreeing to be just friends, but you threw that one away too. I don't give out sixth chances, Damon. But if you just go away it's going to make everything worse, so you're going to go in there and you're going to act happy just to be her friend because you should be thrilled that Elena's even willing to be friends with you after everything. And you aren't going to tell her any of that or flirt with her or anything, this time you're going to be only friends or so help me I will-"

Jeremy cut his threat off there for the sake of Maddie, but it was clear from his facial expression that whatever he was going to do would not be pretty.

"You really think that I'm stupid enough to try something like that again?" Damon asked. "And you think that I don't know that I'm lucky to even have her tolerate me?"

"Yeah, I do think you're that stupid," Jeremy responded honestly. "It's not like your track record says any differently."

"Well I'm not telling her any of that," Damon told him. "It's too late for it to do anything except for make things worse."

Maddie, who had remained silent since Damon had started talking to Jeremy, felt the need to speak up then.

"But Daamon!" She whined. "That's stupid. She doesn't trust you so you're going to lie more?"

"It's complicated," Damon told her. "I need you to keep it secret, okay?"

"Fine," Maddie said with a pout. "But it's still dumb."

Jeremy stood looking unimpressed as he waited for Damon to get up.

"You should be happy," Jeremy commented. "You don't have to deal with explaining yourself and you get to pretend to be the hero by showing up after you screwed up and acting like you're such a great guy for still wanting to be friends with her."

Damon frowned and decided to remain silent as he got up and grabbed Maddie's hand again.

Instead of responding to Jeremy, Damon looked down at Maddie and said, "Come on. You wanted to go meet Jenna, didn't you?"

Maddie nodded before looking up at Jeremy with a frown and starting to walk back towards the room with Damon. Maddie really did not like Jeremy Gilbert at all.

* * *

When Damon and Maddie re-entered the room with Jeremy close behind them, Elena had stopped crying and wiped away all the tears from her face in an attempt to act like the crying had never happened.

In the time that they had been gone, Alaric had managed to explain who Maddie was and why she was there to Jenna so that time her and Damon's entrance was slightly less awkward.

Maddie let go of Damon's hand and shyly walked over to where Ric was sitting next to Jenna and quietly said, "Hi."

Jenna smiled down at the little girl as she said, "I hear that you couldn't wait to meet me."

Jeremy sat back down in the same chair that he had been in before which left only one open chair left on the other side of Elena from where Jeremy was sitting.

Damon slowly walked over and sat down in the remaining chair, shooting Elena an apologetic look on his way.

As Maddie chattered away asking Jenna questions, Damon leaned over and whispered, "Sorry about the whole kiss thing and making you cry. You're right, we're better off staying as just friends. ..But I don't hate you and I'm not going to ignore you."

Elena gave him a weak smile although she actually was quite relieved at the news.

Damon felt like lately he had been apologizing both too much and not enough to Elena. He should be apologizing more for what he had done, but at the same time he needed to stop doing things that required an apology.

* * *

After a while, Maddie fell asleep on the edge of Jenna's bed, so Damon decided that it was probably time to take her home. He picked her up and carried her down to the car.

* * *

Once they got home, Damon carried her from the car to her bed before deciding to head to his own bed early. After all, that had always been what Damon had done when he was upset and didn't want to deal with his problems; just slept instead.

* * *

Damon didn't end up getting out of bed the next day until Stefan, Alaric, and Maddie had come home from school.

"Damon!" Maddie shouted excitedly as she ran to Damon's bedroom as soon as they had walked through the door.

Although Maddie hadn't been living there for long, she had become especially attached to Damon since he wasn't anywhere near as busy as the other two and was usually the one who hung out with her.

Damon rolled over in bed to face her and groaned.

"How are you still in bed?" Maddie asked. "I went to school and came back and you're  _still_  sleeping."

Damon figured that it was an argument that he wasn't going to win, so instead he slowly forced himself out of bed and began to head out of his room, still in pajamas.

Damon moved to the living room and flopped down onto the couch next to Stefan who looked just as unhappy as Damon felt.

"Wow, you two are a happy looking pair," Alaric commented sarcastically.

Damon felt like total shit as he said, "Sorry about bringing her there last night without checking with you first. I'm a moron."

"Don't worry about it," Ric said, figuring that Damon looked like he already felt bad enough without being guilty over bringing Maddie to the hospital. "Jenna loved her."

Damon gave Ric the most pathetic of quick smiles before turning to face his brother.

"What happened to you?" Damon asked.

"Me and Matt got into a fight," Stefan responded. "And now we're not on speaking terms… You?"

"I kissed Elena when we're supposed to be just friends and she ended up crying and thinking that I was going to ignore her again," Damon responded.

Maddie frowned at them.

"You two are sad and boring," She told them.

"Thanks," Damon said sarcastically as he began to debate heading back to bed.

"I want to do something!" Maddie complained.

"Watch TV or something," Damon told her.

Maddie pouted, clearly not liking that Damon wasn't going to play. She turned to Stefan and looked at him sadly.

"Can't you do something with Uncle Ric?" Stefan asked hopefully.

Maddie began to look even sadder as she muttered, "Okay."

She shot Damon one last sad look as she turned to head towards Alaric to ask him to play.

"How about this," Damon said, unable to handle making her look that sad. "If you go hang out with Uncle Ric for a while then I'll take you to watch Stefan's football game later."

"Okay," Maddie said much more enthusiastically as she happily ran to go tell Uncle Ric.

"The game's going to be fun tonight," Stefan muttered sarcastically. "Matt'll probably ignore me the whole time. But maybe that's better than talking to him at this point."

"What happened?" Damon asked.

"I don't even know anymore," Stefan responded. "The whole thing's stupid and it just keeps getting worse and worse."

"Fun," Damon said sarcastically.

* * *

When Damon arrived at the game he was more than a little surprised to find that Caroline, Elena, Rebekah, and Bonnie had all become cheerleaders that year. He wondered how he hadn't known that and why Stefan hadn't told him, but then realized that it was a lot easier to keep up to date when you don't leave for several months.

* * *

After the game, Stefan came over looking at least as unhappy as he had been before the game.

"I'm guessing that you two didn't make up?" Damon asked.

"We didn't say a single word to each other the whole time," Stefan responded. "He barely even looked at me."


	28. Chapter 28

The next day when Stefan came home from school, it was immediately apparent from the look on his face that things hadn't gotten any better with Matt.

Damon had been moping a lot less since that morning Elena had texted him asking if he wanted to hang out at the Grill later.

"What happened?" Damon asked.

"Well we didn't talk to each other until lunch," Stefan commented. "And when I tried to talk to him we ended up fighting over literally everything. And this whole thing is stupid because I didn't do anything. We were just having a normal conversation and he just snapped at me yesterday and I got mad and now we're fighting over who eats funny."

"Maybe he was having a shitty day and was already in a bad mood," Damon suggested.

Maddie stared up at him with wide eyes.

"I mean  _bad_  day," Damon corrected his language quickly upon seeing the look on Maddie's face.

"I'm sick of everything that I say somehow being twisted into something terrible," Stefan muttered.

"Do you want to play with me?" Maddie asked as she walked over to Stefan.

"I don't know, I bet Damon does," Stefan responded.

"But maybe playing will make you happy again," Maddie suggested. "Damon can play too if he wants."

"Alright," Stefan agreed.

Maddie turned to look at Damon.

"Are you kidding? I've been waiting all day for you to get home so that we could do something," Damon said with a smile.

Stefan had to smirk a little at that.

* * *

When Damon was about to leave to go meet Elena, there was a knocking on the door.

Damon opened the door since he was already headed towards it and then turned to his brother and said, "It's for you."

Damon stepped back as Stefan reluctantly walked over to the door. Damon figured that he'd better stay and risk making himself late to make sure that Stefan was alright before he could leave.

"What do you want?" Stefan asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I don't want to fight anymore," Matt said.

"Really?" Stefan asked. "Because to me it seems like fighting's all that you want to do."

"I'm sorry, okay? Taking everything out on you was a dick move," Matt told him.

Stefan was torn between two emotions and two responses and, just like his brother, he chose the wrong one.

"Right, you're sorry. That makes everything better when you've been acting like a total jerk," Stefan said sarcastically. "But whenever I wanted to try to stop fighting and fix things you just got angrier."

"So now you're mad that I wouldn't stop fighting so you're going to fight more?" Matt asked, starting to get angry again. "Do you realize how stupid that sounds?"

"I'm so glad that you came over here just to tell me how dumb I am," Stefan replied. "Thanks Matt."

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" Matt argued.

"Both of you shut up!" Damon said loudly as he moved to stand beside them.

Stefan and Matt both went silent and turned to stare at Damon in shock.

"You both sound stupid to me," Damon said. "I mean you're fighting non-stop and you're too busy trying to get the last word in and be the good guy in the situation to realize just how stupid the fight is. Do either of you know what the original fight was even about? I  _know_  that Stefan doesn't…"

Matt and Stefan looked down at the ground to avoid eye contact. They remained silent since they had no answer to give him.

"That's what I thought." Damon said, sounding a little too upset about the fight considering the fact that he wasn't even involved in it. "Does it really matter who ends the fight or who won it? Both of you have said things that you didn't mean and both of you were arguing and ignoring each other. You both have things to be sorry about so just apologize to each other and get over it. I mean you two love each other so why are you trying to hurt each other?"

Neither spoke as Damon continued to get even more worked up.

"But fine. If you don't want to listen to me then keep fighting," Damon told them. "Throw everything away over something petty. And then end up struggling to even be friends with each other while the whole time you know that it'll never be enough and that you're just hurting both of you. And you can't leave and you should just be glad to even be friends, but you can't quite make yourself be happy. Because whatever you do, you're still going to be in love with her-"

"Umm, Damon-" Stefan said, realizing what his brother was actually talking about.

"Don't 'Damon' me and don't give me that face. I know exactly who I'm talking about," Damon cut his brother off. "Which is why you should listen to me because believe me I know about stupid screw-ups and how much you'll regret them afterwards and hate yourself for making them. So unless you want to turn into me and have to watch every single word that you say around each other and every single thing that you do then you two had better sort your shit out. …Now if you'll excuse me, I have a  _friend_  that I'm late to meet."

Damon stormed out the door, leaving a quite shocked pair behind him.

Matt and Stefan turned to look at each other guiltily.

* * *

When Damon arrived at the Mystic Grill ten minutes late, he instantly spotted Elena laughing at something that Elijah had said and had to remind himself that he had zero right to be jealous.

Damon headed over to the table where Elena had joined Elijah and Rebekah while she was waiting.

"Hey, I brought your jacket back," Elena said once she saw him.

"Thanks," Damon said as he took it from her. "Sorry I'm late; there was Stefan/Matt drama."

"It's alright, I found people to talk to," Elena told him. "They've been fighting a lot these past two days."

"That's what I've heard," Damon responded as he sat down.

"Do you guys know why they're fighting?" Rebekah asked.

"I don't," Elena responded.

Damon shook his head. He wasn't lying since the other two didn't even really know what they were fighting about, but he still managed to keep from discussing the entire details of his brother's love life to them.

* * *

The four of them hung out together for a few hours while Damon made a constant effort to be nice to Elijah, despite that fact that he couldn't stand his presence, and to make sure that he didn't do or say anything that could be taken as flirting with Elena.

* * *

When Damon got home to find Stefan and Matt sitting on the couch together, he just smirked at them on his way past.

* * *

The next morning Elena saw Stefan and Matt walking in the hallways together happily and wondered how they had fixed things so much when they had been arguing over literally everything during the previous days.

Elena sat with Stefan during second class Chemistry, so she decided to ask him then.

"Looks like you and Matt are getting along today, what happened?" She asked.

"Damon," Stefan responded simply.

Elena wondered what Damon could have said to make them stop bickering, but decided not to pry any further.

* * *

A couple of days later, Maddie was in one of her bored moods and offering to play with her was not helping.

"I want to watch a movie!" Maddie complained. "But all the movies here are stupid!"

"Well luckily for you, I happen to know a girl with a shockingly large collection of Disney movies," Damon responded. "And if you're really nice I bet that she would let you borrow one."

"Really?" Maddie asked excitedly.

"Really," Damon told her.

* * *

A few minutes later, Damon was standing outside of the Gilbert house and knocked on the door.

Elena opened the door and before she could even speak, Maddie looked up at her and excitedly said, "Hi, Elena!"

"Hi," Elena said, a little surprised by the overjoyed greeting.

"Where do you keep the movies?" Maddie asked as she pushed her way into the house.

Elena shot Damon an amused look.

"What she meant to ask was if she could borrow a movie," Damon told Elena.

"Yeah, that too," Maddie agreed. "They only have stupid boy movies."

Elena laughed a little before she asked, "Did you know that before I got to him, Damon had only seen two Disney movies ever? And he didn't even know one of them by name."

Maddie turned to look at Damon in shock, "Really?"

"I'm weird, right?" Damon asked as Elena led them to where the movies were kept in the living room.

Jenna was lying asleep on the couch. It looked like she had fallen asleep while watching the TV.

"How's she been doing?" Damon asked as Maddie eagerly looked through the movies.

"A lot better," Elena told him. "She's still tired a lot though, which she's constantly complaining isn't fair after she slept for over a week straight."

"Damon, let's take this one!" Maddie said excitedly as she brought Finding Nemo over.

"She means borrow," Damon told Elena with a chuckle as his phone began to ring.

Damon went outside to answer his phone, leaving Maddie alone with Elena and a sleeping Jenna.

"Are you mad at Damon?" Maddie took the opportunity to ask.

"No," Elena answered.

"Are you sure?" Maddie asked. "Not for being a jerk?"

"Did he say something to you?" Elena asked.

"I'm not allowed to tell you what he said," Maddie answered. "..But sometimes he's a big dummy and he does the wrong thing when he's trying to make things better."

Elena was about to ask what Maddie was talking about when Damon walked back in after finishing on the phone.

"What was that?" Elena asked him.

"Nothing, Stefan just wanted to know something," Damon told her.


	29. Chapter 29

"What'd Stefan want to know?" Maddie asked.

"What kind of 'you're the greatest brother that I could ever possibly imagine and I'm just lucky that I get to be around you on a daily basis' pizza I wanted him to make," Damon responded. "That might not have been his exact wording, but that's what I got out of it."

"He's making you pizza?" Maddie asked. "Can I have some?"

"I don't know," Damon said with a smirk. "I mean it's kind of my reward pizza... And I was thinking that I'd just eat the entire thing by myself."

"You're fat," Maddie told him. "And you're only getting it because you helped him, so I should get some for helping you."

Elena began to wonder what Maddie had helped Damon with and whether it had anything to do with what she had said while Damon was still outside.

Elena still really wanted to figure out what Maddie had been talking about and if she meant a specific time that Damon did something stupid or in general. Elena wondered just how much Maddie knew and whether she would ever find out what was going on.

"True," Damon responded. "How about this; we share the pizza and make Stefan and Uncle Ric watch us eat the whole thing ourselves?"

"Okay!" Maddie said happily.

When Damon and Maddie got back home, they discovered that really Stefan was making pizza for all of them instead of just Damon.

As soon as Maddie was out of earshot, Damon commented, "Pizza whore."

Stefan chuckled, "Thanks. I'm glad that you appreciate the gesture so much."

"I still want pizza," Damon commented. "I just feel less special now."

"Well I'm pretty sure that I owe Ric pizza too after everything," Stefan pointed out. "And I thought that maybe I could have some of the food that I'm making. So leaving Maddie as the only one not getting pizza seemed a little harsh, especially after she was trying to cheer me up."

"She was going to get some of mine anyways," Damon commented. "We were going to make you guys sit there and watch us eat."

"And to think that some people have the nerve to call you a dick," Stefan said with a smirk.

Jenna had been awake for approximately ten minutes when Elena pushed her feet off of the couch to sit down next to her. As she sat down, she let out a loud huff.

"Okay, what happened?" Jenna asked.

"So Damon came here earlier-" Elena began.

"I already don't like where this is going," Jenna commented. "What's with all the drama between you two? Either you like each other or you don't, and clearly he likes you still."

"I don't know how I feel," Elena responded. "I just know that even if I did like him that I couldn't go back to him after everything that's happened, especially when I still haven't gotten an explanation for any of it."

"So then what happened today?" Jenna asked. "Was he all Flirty McFlirterson?"

"No," Elena responded. "It wasn't anything that he said. It was stuff that Maddie said. …When he was outside, she asked if I was mad at him. And when I said no, she pushed it even further and asked if I was sure and if I wasn't mad at him for being a jerk."

"So?" Jenna asked. "She saw you and Jeremy fighting about Damon at the hospital, she was probably just trying to figure out what was going on. Or maybe he wanted to know if you were mad and sent in Maddie to check for him."

"That's what I thought, so I asked her if he said something to her because I figured that either she knew something that I didn't or she was sent," Elena explained. "And then she said that she wasn't allowed to tell me what he said but- and I'm quoting here- '..But sometimes he's a big dummy and he does the wrong thing when he's trying to make things better'."

"What was she talking about; the kiss?" Jenna asked. "Or in general? Or the breakup.. Or what?"

"I don't know. I was going to ask, but then he came back," Elena responded. "And then later when he was saying something about getting pizza for helping Stefan with his Matt drama, Maddie was saying that she should get some of it for helping him. And I don't know if that was something else or if it was the same thing as when he was talking to her."

"That boy needs to get his act together and give you some answers," Jenna commented.

"Yeah, well I'm not going hunting for them," Elena commented. "Asking hasn't worked yet and I'm done searching for answers. If he doesn't want to tell me anything, then fine."

"So you really want to be just friends?" Jenna asked. "There's no secret longing feelings?"

"I really just don't even want to consider thinking about being anything other than friends at this point," Elena replied. "And he agreed that it's better that we stay that way, so hopefully I don't have to worry about it anymore."

"Right and I'm sure that he didn't just say that because that was what you wanted to hear and he wanted to keep you happy," Jenna commented.

"Well either way it doesn't matter," Elena responded. "Besides, I'm not sure that I don't like somebody else anyways."

"Excuse me?" Jenna asked. "You might like someone else and you didn't lead off with that?"

"Well I'm not even sure and we were talking about something else..." Elena trailed off, sounding like she was about to end the conversation.

"Well don't hold out on me now!" Jenna said, hitting Elena on the arm lightly. "Come on, I need something good. I slept for over a week and missed all of the Damon drama as it was happening; you've got to give me something… Just a name. And maybe if you're feeling really generous, an explanation for those of us who are behind."

Elena sighed dramatically.

"Fine," Elena responded. "Elijah. And that's all that you're getting."

"When did this happen? I need details," Jenna told her.

"I said that's all you're getting," Elena said as she moved to get up.

"Aww, E and E. That's so cute," Jenna teased.

"Shut up." Elena said as she gave up on standing up.

"I will… Under one circumstance," Jenna said with a smirk. "I need details. Now."

"Okay, I'll tell you one thing," Elena responded. "But then you have to shut up or else I'll just have to start talking like that about you in front of Ric."

Jenna's mouth gaped open as she stared at her niece.

"You wouldn't dare," Jenna told her in a warning tone.

"Oh, but I would," Elena said in a tone of pure evil. "And just think of all the adorable embarrassing stories that I could tell him."

"And then I'd-" Jenna began to threaten.

"You'd what?" Elena asked with a smirk. "Come lie on my bed and tell me about your boy problems?"

Jenna raised an eyebrow at Elena as she stared over at her.

"You think that you're so funny, don't you?" Jenna challenged.

"Yeah, maybe I do," Elena told her with a grin. "What are you going to do about it?"

"This," Jenna responded as she pulled a pillow out from under her back and hit Elena in the face with it.

"You really want to start this?" Elena asked, giving her aunt the opportunity to back out.

"Start what?" Jenna asked innocently before hitting Elena once again.

"Okay, that's it," Elena said before grabbing the pillow from next to her and hitting Jenna back.

Jeremy walked down the stairs a few minutes later to find them in a full blown pillow fight.

"I see that you two are mature as usual," He said sarcastically as a smirk formed on his lips.

"Shut up!" Elena said before throwing her pillow over at him.

It hit Jeremy in the chest and he caught it before it could hit the ground.

"So how exactly did this start?" Jeremy asked.

"Well-" Jenna began to say loudly and enthusiastically before Elena reached over to clasp a hand over Jenna's mouth.

"Fine, I'll tell you details as soon as he leaves. Okay?" Elena asked.

Jenna nodded and Elena cautiously removed her hand.

"I see how it is," Jeremy commented. "Fine, just let me grab something out of the kitchen first. …I mean unless you're girl talk is important enough that I should starve to death for it."

"Well it is pretty important," Elena teased as Jeremy walked past.

"Right," Jeremy said as he hit her in the back of the head with her pillow and then continued to walk.


	30. Chapter 30

Caroline Forbes and Bonnie Bennett walked into the Mystic Grill on their way to meet Elena. As they walked through the doors, they passed Elijah and Kol on their way out.

The pair headed straight towards the table where Elena was waiting and sat down.

"If I tell you guys something, then do you promise not to freak out and make a bigger deal out of it than it really is?" Elena asked cautiously as soon as they were seated.

Caroline nodded, forcing herself to keep a straight face since she wasn't completely confident that she could answer without smirking or grinning.

"Sure," Bonnie agreed.

"You have to actually promise," Elena pointed out.

"Fine, I promise," Caroline said as she rolled her eyes.

"I promise too," Bonnie told her.

"Okay," Elena said warily. "While I was waiting for you guys, Elijah kind of asked me out on a date. And I kind of said yes."

A cat-like grin formed on Caroline's lips as she said, "I so called it! I knew that you totally liked him! …What are you going to wear? What are you going to do?"

Elena rolled her eyes as she commented, "So much for your promise. And it's just a movie; it's not a big deal."

"It's your first date since the Damon breakup, of course it's a big deal!" Caroline said excitedly.

"She's right," Bonnie said. "Especially when it's with someone that you already know well."

"It's  _one_  date," Elena told them. "It's not like we're getting engaged."

"Yet," Caroline said with a teasing smirk.

"You're acting worse than usual just to bother me, aren't you?" Elena asked.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Caroline lied with a suggestive eyebrow waggle.

"Yeah, right," Elena said sarcastically as she laughed a little.

* * *

Telling Jenna did not go over much better.

"I knew it," Jenna said with a grin. "You two will be so cute. ..I'm going to have to think of a couple name for you two. It shouldn't be too hard with the practically matching names."

"And you wonder why I don't want to tell you when I like people," Elena said with an eye roll.

"Calm down, I'm just kidding," Jenna said with a grin. "…Mostly."

* * *

Stefan and Caroline were sitting on the couch together working on an English project when it was almost time for Elena and Elijah's date.

Caroline pulled out her phone and decided to send Elena a text.

Elena's phone beeped loudly. She looked down at it and had to roll her eyes at what her friend had sent her.

* * *

**From Caroline:**

_So do you guys know what you're going to name your first kid yet? I was thinking that if it's a girl, then you should definitely name it Caroline. It's a quality name._

**From Elena:**

_Thanks for the help, but believe it or not we actually haven't discussed children yet. Or really anything because we aren't a couple yet and we might not ever be._

Caroline laughed a little before quickly typing back a response.

**From Caroline:**

_The lady doth protest too much, methinks. …You're texting me details._

**From Elena:**

_Cute. And fine, but after. I'm not just going to sit there texting you the whole time._

**From Caroline:**

_Of course not, you'll be too busy paying attention to your boy-toy. But if I have to wait, then you'd better give me something juicy._

**From Elena:**

_You'll get what you get._

* * *

"Hey, Caroline?" Stefan asked her.

"What?" Caroline asked, momentarily looking up from her phone.

"Do you think that maybe we could actually work on the project instead of you just sitting there texting?" Stefan asked.

"I know. He's annoying to be around, right?" Damon asked with a smirk. "I mean you need some form of distraction from it. I usually just think about something else and pretend that he isn't there."

"Thanks," Stefan said sarcastically.

"No problem," Damon told him with a cheeky smile.

Caroline looked down at her phone to send one last text.

* * *

**From Caroline:**

_I want a minimum rating of pg-13 on the details._

* * *

"Sorry," Caroline said as she placed her phone back on the table. "I'm done now anyways."

"What? It's Klaus's bedtime?" Damon asked with a smirk.

"Actually it's time for Elena to get picked up by Elijah so I decided to stop texting her," Caroline responded and then realized what she had just revealed.

Damon's body tensed up instantly. He balled his hands up to fists and forced them to stay at his sides.

"Picking her up for what?" Damon asked, trying his hardest to sound casual. He didn't even slightly succeed.

"Well people weren't supposed to find out until after they see if it works out," Caroline said awkwardly. "But he's taking her on a date."

Damon's hands clenched tighter as he felt himself become irrationally angry.

It didn't matter that he didn't have any right to be that upset and jealous. It didn't matter that it was his fault that he had lost Elena. All that he could think about was how upset he was and how much he wanted to hit Elijah at that moment.

"Damon? …Are you okay?" Stefan asked, sensing that his brother was about to go off.

Damon wanted to lie, he wanted to tell his brother that he was fine, but when he opened his mouth nothing quite came out. Somehow it was all too real. It was like he was just now beginning to understand how much he had lost Elena now that she was going on a date with Elijah.

Damon turned to the nearest wall and punched it as hard as he could.

"Fuck!" He shouted as blood ran down his knuckles.

Damon hadn't expected it to hurt that much when he had punched the wall. He held his injured hand to his chest as he stared at the hole that he had left in the wall.

Caroline turned to give Stefan a concerned look, but all that Stefan could offer her was a matching one back.

"…Damon?" A weak voice came from the hallway.

Damon looked up to see Maddie peeking out from around the corner. She looked terrified of him.

Damon knew that face. It was a face that Damon knew all too well, he had worn he it himself many times when his father was drunk and angry.

The anger dissipated and left him just feeling upset and guilty as he looked over at the little girl's face.

"It's okay, Maddie," Damon said in an attempt to comfort her even though nothing felt okay to him at that point.

Maddie looked nervously between Damon and Stefan as if somehow Stefan would have whatever answer she was looking for.

Damon put his face in his good hand and sat down in the nearest chair, feeling like total garbage.

Maddie seemed to think that it was safe to enter the room then and quickly ran over to sit by Stefan where she figured that it would be safer.

"…I guess that I shouldn't have said anything…" Caroline said, breaking the silence.

"No," Damon told her as he brought his head back out of his hands. "It's not your fault, it's mine. All of it's my fault and I just keep digging myself deeper."

"You're hands bleeding a lot," Caroline commented. "Come on, I'm going to bandage you up."

"Thanks," Damon commented as he let Caroline lead him out of the room.

"Why's Damon all mad?" Maddie asked quietly once he was out of the room.

"Because he found out that Elena's on a date with someone else," Stefan told her.

* * *

After Caroline had wiped off the blood she said, "Actually it isn't as bad as I thought. It isn't bleeding as much anymore. But I still wouldn't advise punching walls anymore."

"Yeah, it was stupid," Damon said. "Now my hand hurts and Maddie's afraid of me."

"She'll get over it once you start acting normal again," Caroline told him as she wrapped up his hand.

"Yeah, maybe," Damon said, not sounding entirely convinced. "But that face when she was scared is the one that I used to have around my dad. And I really don't want to be like him."

"You're not," Caroline told him. "So you got mad once? Everybody gets angry sometimes. At least you just punched a wall instead of hitting someone. …That little girl adores you. Trust me, she'll forgive you."

"But Elena won't," Damon told her. "I mean maybe enough to be friends, but she's never going to forgive me enough for it to be anything more again."

Caroline frowned as Damon headed out of the room before she could respond to him.

* * *

When Damon walked back through the room wearing an expression of moping instead of one of anger, Maddie seemed to relax a little.

Damon headed straight through the room and to his own, deciding that he didn't want to be up anymore.

* * *

As Stefan and Caroline were just putting the finishing touches on their project, Caroline got another text.

She read through it quickly and then turned to Stefan and said, "The date's over. He kissed her at the end, but they both thought that it was weird like kissing a cousin. So Damon is moping over nothing."

"I'll go tell him," Maddie volunteered before running out of the room.

"I guess that she isn't scared of him anymore," Caroline commented as Maddie left.

* * *

"Damon!" Maddie said excitedly as she entered the room to find Damon lying on his bed.

Damon resisted the urge to ignore her or snap at her as he calmly asked, "What?"

"Elena told Caroline that Elijah kissed her," Maddie began.

"That's great for them," Damon told her. "But I don't really want to hear about it right now."

"She said that he kissed her and it was weird for both of them," Maddie told him happily.

"So?" Damon asked. "She still kissed somebody else. And maybe next time it'll be someone who it isn't weird with."

"Exactly," Maddie said.

Damon wondered what that could mean, but then it seemed to hit him.

He could either sit around and wait for someone else to take Elena or he could do everything in his power to be the one kissing her next. And how could he expect her to forgive him and trust her when he hadn't even told her what had happened or given her any reason to trust him? He had given Matt and Stefan solid advice and been too stupid to listen to his own words.

Little by little an idea began to form in Damon's head and a smile formed on his face.

"You are a genius," Damon told Maddie and kissed her on the top of the head before getting up to head out of the room.

"What'd I say?" Maddie asked as she followed behind him.

* * *

When Damon entered the living room with a giant grin on his face, Caroline and Stefan both looked confused by the sudden change in emotion.

"What got you so happy?" Stefan asked.

"I'm a genius," Maddie boasted.

"And I'm done sitting around doing nothing and feeling sorry for myself," Damon told his brother. "I'm going to get Elena back. I've got a plan."


	31. Chapter 31

"Well it's about time," Caroline commented.

"I know," Damon responded. "Hey, you like scheming. You want to help, Blondie?"

Stefan smirked a little as he watched while Maddie was beaming.

"What do you want me to do?" Caroline asked, her tone showing that she was clearly on board.

"Well first I have to go talk to Jeremy before I go through with the actual plan," Damon told her. "So can you distract Elena for a while tomorrow?"

"Easy," Caroline said with a smirk. "We have cheer practice right after school."

"Perfect," Damon said with a grin as the plan continued to grow in his mind.

* * *

Alaric came home shortly after Caroline had left.

"What happened to the wall?" He asked within seconds of stepping through the door. Before anyone had the chance to answer, Alaric noticed the bandaging on Damon's hand and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Sorry about the hole," Damon apologized guiltily.

"I didn't ask you to apologize, I asked you if you were alright," Alaric pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Damon said with a wry smile.

Damon still hadn't quite gotten used to how easy going Alaric was when he screwed things up. And he was still always surprised by how concerned Ric was for him.

"Good." Alaric said, excepting that as the end of the conversation.

* * *

When Jenna came home from her date with Alaric, she found Elena waiting for her on the couch.

"Uh oh, what happened with Elijah?" Jenna asked as she sat down next to her.

"Nothing," Elena told her. "I mean we kissed, but we both decided that it was weird and there was nothing there."

"If you both decided that there was nothing, then why do you look so upset?" Jenna asked.

"It has nothing to do with Elijah," Elena told her. "It's Damon. He wasn't even there and there's still fresh Damon drama."

"How did that happen?" Jenna asked.

"Well the awkward kiss thing was halfway through the movie, so after that it was like we were just there as friends," Elena explained. "But then there was this scene where they were standing out in the rain and the main guy was trying to get the girl back and as much as I didn't want to, all I could think of was Damon. …I don't think that I ever told you about this before, but before anything ever happened between us, Damon was acting like a jerk to everyone and I could tell that it was because there was something wrong, so I told him that he had to talk to someone. But of course he ignored me.. Until the night that he slept over at our place. He just showed up at the door, drenched from the rain and crying. And that's the first time that he was ever really vulnerable around me or that he let me in even a little bit. And then I was also thinking about the time after the breakup when my arm was still in the cast and there was that fire drill outside in the rain, so he dropped the act for a while to give me his jacket and make sure that I covered up the cast instead of getting it wet. I mean he turned back into a total jerk again afterwards, but for a second there I was still naïve enough to think that I might get my Damon back."

"So there still is lingering feelings," Jenna pointed out.

"I don't know, maybe," Elena admitted. "But it's not like I can do anything about it. My Damon's gone and there's no getting any of that back anymore. And I know that I shouldn't feel guilty over any of it; I know that most of it was his fault. But still, I told him a long time ago that I wouldn't give up on him. And that's exactly what I did. He started acting like a jerk and instead of persisting and knowing that there was something else going on like I did before, I just gave up after a couple of tries."

"Well who says that there was something else going on?" Jenna asked. "Did he finally give you an explanation?"

"No," Elena responded immediately. "But I mean he was saying that he hated me when there were so many looks and actions that contradicted that. And I mean after the Tyler thing he specifically told me that he didn't hate me and that he never could, and then immediately pretended that it had never happened. And afterwards when Ric said the whole thing about how he was all concerned and getting them to ask for him while refusing to ask if I was okay for himself..."

"Yeah, I guess," Jenna responded.

"So why would I go back to him after he put me through all of that?" Elena asked. "I mean he's had bad things happen to him and they made him act like a jerk. But while those bad things were still happening we were together and he got better and then everything got better and he just turned into a total jerk again, but only to one person. Me. So why would I ever put myself through that again?"

"Because your brain can't control what your heart wants," Jenna told her. "And maybe what you guys have won't ever be enough to be able to get over the past. But there's also the chance that eventually it will be."

"Yeah, well screw eventually," Elena responded. "I'm done thinking about Damon. He's done nothing to deserve a second chance, so I'm not giving him one. We're staying as friends and he should be glad. …And I thought that you were team E and E?"

"No, I'm team you admitting to yourself that you're still hung up over Damon whether you want to be or not," Jenna responded. "And I knew that you would never figure it out until you tried going out with somebody else."

* * *

The next day Damon headed to the Gilbert house as soon as school was over.

He knocked on the door and Jeremy came and answered it moments later.

"She's not home," Jeremy told him instantly.

"I know," Damon responded. "I came to talk to you."

"Why?" Jeremy asked.

"Because we both know that I don't deserve Elena," Damon responded. "But I will."

"And how do you plan on accomplishing that?" Jeremy asked doubtfully as he took a step back to let Damon inside.

"I have a plan," Damon told her. "And I'm going to tell her everything, all of the stuff that you heard me telling Maddie and more. And then she can make her own decision."

"Fine, I'm listening," Jeremy said. "What's your plan?"

Damon explained the entire plan to Jeremy and then looked to him for an answer.

* * *

"So are you in?" Damon asked.

"Fine," Jeremy said. "She has the right to know everything and make her own decision. But I swear to God if you screw things up and hurt her again, then I will murder you with my bare hands."

"Fair enough," Damon responded with a grin. "But if she gives me another chance, then there's no way that I'm throwing it away."

* * *

The next day, Alaric came home to find his living room filled with teenagers.

"Hey, Ric," Damon said cheerily. "We're working on a plan where there's a pretty good chance that I'm just going to make a complete ass out of myself. You want in?"

"Well how can I say no to that?" Alaric asked with a smirk.

* * *

When Damon took another movie that Maddie had borrowed back to Elena's house the next day, she instantly noticed the bandaging on his hand.

"What happened there?" Elena asked, instantly feeling a pit in her stomach upon seeing Damon hurt.

"Oh, that?" Damon asked as he looked down at his hand. "I punched a wall."

"Why?" Elena asked.

"It looked at me funny," Damon joked.

He wanted to tell her the truth, and he knew that he would soon, but he also wanted to keep things as normal as possible until the plan was ready instead of messing things up beforehand.

"Right," Elena said sarcastically. "Well is it okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine," Damon told her. "My hands just a little scraped up."

"Well don't go punching any more walls, alright?" She asked.

"It's a deal," Damon told her.

* * *

During one day of the next week, Elena got up and headed down the hall to her brother's room.

"Happy birthday, Jer," She told him.

"Yeah, and I guess that you can have an alright one too," Jeremy said with a smirk.

"Thanks," Elena said sarcastically as a grin formed on her own face.

* * *

When they went downstairs, they found Jenna waiting for them in the kitchen.

"Happy birthday, guys," She told them. "I made you guys birthday cereal. I figured anything more difficult and you would refuse to eat it."

"Good call," Jeremy told her as he sat down at the table.

* * *

Elena and Jeremy entered the school together and were just about to go their separate ways when Jeremy pulled an envelope out of his pocket and said, "I'm supposed to give you this. It's from Damon."

Elena took it from him and Jeremy was gone before she had time to ask him anything.

Elena opened the envelope, expecting to find a birthday card. Instead she found a piece of paper.

She unfolded it to find that it was covered in a message that had been written by hand.

* * *

_Elena Gilbert, I just have one thing that I need to say to you right now before I can say anything else. You are one incredibly gullible girl._

_I mean, I told you that the breakup with Andie had nothing to do with you and you just believed me. The only reasons that I said that were because I didn't want you to feel bad for causing the break up and because I didn't want you finding out that the real reason that she broke up with me was because I wasn't over you and she knew it. Hell, I'm still not over you._

_You thought that I was honestly okay with just being friends with you. Really? I know that I should just be glad to get to have your friendship after everything, but let's face it. I'm a selfish jackass and I can't handle being this close to you practically every day and constantly having to pretend that I think of you as just a friend._

_But seriously? Have you never seen a chick flick or a romantic comedy in your life? The male best friend who is always there is always crazy for the girl just as much as she is oblivious to the fact that he is. And whenever someone who the girl hated shows up back in town, or when someone new who she hates at first but secretly thinks is super attractive shows up, they always end up falling for each other._

_And yes, I know that life isn't some super cheesy chick flick, but I thought that maybe that it could be just for one day._

_This year for your birthday I'm giving you the gift of complete sappiness and corniness. So if you don't want that, then you should probably just stop reading this right now. ..Or I guess that maybe you should have actually just not read any of this in general._

_But if you don't want a whole bunch of stupid, totally lame mushiness then you should probably just ignore anything involving me for the rest of the day. Although I'd really prefer if you didn't and just gave me a chance._

_I bet that you're wondering what the hell that I'm even talking about right now. Well I guess that you're just going to have to wait and see…_

_Yours (If you'll take me),_

_Captain Cheeseball_


	32. Chapter 32

Elena quickly flipped the paper over to check if there was anything on the back. When she found that there was nothing, she began to fold the paper back up.

Elena found herself feeling nervous about what Damon was going to do. There was a ball of dread in her stomach as she wondered what he had planned. It grew three times in size as she realized that he was never going to be okay with just being friends with her and that there was practically zero chance that she would ever be okay with being anything more than that with him ever again.

But at the same time, she couldn't keep her heart from picking up in pace. She had to admit that there was also a part of her that was excited and curious for answers. There was a small part of her that hoped and believed that she just might get  _her_  Damon back. No matter how much the gigantic logical portion of her brain argued with that smaller part, it couldn't quite crush the idea.

Elena tried to pull her thoughts off of Damon as she stuck the envelope into her bag and headed towards her locker.

* * *

Elena had barely sat down in her first class, Math, when Matt sat down next to her and handed her another envelope without so much as a word.

Elena arched a brow at him as she took it from him. She opened up the envelope to find another letter inside.

* * *

_What is this? Another letter from the boy who was temporarily failing classes just because he was too lazy to write anything, so he just didn't do half of the assignments? I know. It's shocking._

_So I know what you were probably thinking after the last letter. What; he'll tell me why Andie broke up with him, but he still won't tell me why he broke up with me?_

_Well guess what? You don't have to wait any longer because I am about to tell you exactly what I tried to hide from you for so long, something that I haven't told anyone else about, not even Stefan. Well… Okay. I told Maddie... And Jeremy sort of overheard, but you're about to read something that I've only technically told to a five year old._

* * *

Elena felt her heart thumping in her chest as she continued to read.

* * *

_I was a complete and total dumbass, not that it's really any secret. But just wait a second because if you thought that I was a dumbass before, then you'll be laughing like a crazy person after this._

_I'm not going to say that our breakup didn't have anything to do with you because that would be a complete and total lie. But I will tell you this; it was definitely not your fault._

_It all started when we were hanging out at your house during that last date. Which you're probably thinking sounds completely stupid since we were having such a good time and we were both happy, right?_

_Well that's why I broke up with you. Because I was too happy and I didn't think that it would last or that I deserved it. At the time, as stupid as I know that this sounds, I was just trying to protect both of our feelings from getting anymore hurt than they already would when we'd eventually break up._

_Real smart, right? All that I really ended up doing was torturing us both._

_But at the time I was sure that I wasn't anywhere near good enough for you and that eventually you were going to figure that out. So I thought that it would be better to leave before you did find out and that way neither of us would get hurt as much._

_And I don't know, maybe I wouldn't have been good enough for you. Or maybe I would have and now I'm not because of what I did to you. But we both know that I have two modes: completely insecure and worthless feeling mode, or total egotistical dick mode._

_And the really stupid thing is that you fell for me when I was at my worst for both of those and when I was still a jerk to everyone. You knew what you were getting into from the beginning and you never said a single thing that should have made me feel like I wasn't worthwhile for you._

_I'm not explaining this right, so I'm going to half start over from the beginning._

_So the night of our last date you made a ridiculously bad pun about cheese, and that's basically when it started. It was probably the worst joke that I've ever heard and still I was grinning like a moron at it while you did that adorable little giggle at your own joke (if you can even really call it a joke...). And right then was the instant that I realized how completely insanely in love with you I was… I am._

_And at first I was happy; really happy. But then you left the room and my brain got to thinking. My thought process went a little something like this:_

_So you're in love with Elena? So what? That doesn't mean that she loves you back or that she ever will. But maybe she does and maybe she will. But it's not like it would matter if she did anyways. You're nowhere near good enough for her. She's smart and kind and you're the opposite of both of those. Maybe dad was right the whole time. He's an asshole, but he was right. Hold on, you don't know that! Don't be stupid, of course she's too good for you and she's going to figure it out. But what if she doesn't? She will though. And the longer you wait for it to happen, the worse it will be for both of you. You're just going to get both of you more attached and it's going to hurt both of you that much more. Is that what you want? To hurt Elena more than you already know that you will? But you'd be hurting her breaking up with her now too! Do you really think that you could handle getting even closer with her only to have her figure it out and drop you? But it's not like you can live without her now either. You're already broken. She's going to figure out that she can't fix you, so why would you break her too?_

_I tried to convince myself that I was wrong, but no matter how hard I tried, the negative side kept winning out. And I know that it's a really cheap excuse and that it doesn't even begin to make it even close to okay, but at that point I was still used to being called stupid and worthless and a waste of space on a practically daily basis. And no matter how much I tried to ignore it, it got to me. More than the beatings ever really did._

_But all of those thoughts were cut off when Jeremy came and found me. I managed to use him as a distraction from them and it worked. Or at least it worked temporarily. We went downstairs and for a while it was like things were back to normal and I was happy with you again._

_On the ride back home though all of the bad thoughts came back and then some and I completely pushed away all of the thoughts of how much better I had felt with you._

_The thoughts didn't go away in the morning and that was when I started avoiding you. At that point I didn't know that I was going to break up with you yet. All I knew was that being around you was clouding my judgement and that I needed to stay away from you until I figured out what I was going to do._

_And I'd explain the whole Stefan unknowingly breaking up with you for me thing, but you're just going to have to wait for that explanation…_

* * *

Elena had been so absorbed in the letter that she hadn't even noticed that the class had already started and that there was a whole whiteboard full of notes up already.

She put the letter away and then hurriedly began to copy the notes down as she tried not to think about what she was going to do.

Sure, she had finally gotten an explanation. But that explanation had been long overdue and she wasn't just going to swoon because she had finally received an answer. And she was still a little mad at Damon. Maybe even angrier than she had been without any answers whatsoever.

She felt a little bad for Damon, but wanted to scream at him until she passed out from oxygen loss at the same time. That was the problem with Damon; one minute he could be so sweet and the next minute he could be a total jerk that you couldn't stand. But somehow even when he was doing things that made you mad at him, he still managed to weasel his way in so that you never quite knew how to feel about him.


	33. Chapter 33

When Elena sat down in her next class, Chemistry, Stefan immediately handed her another envelope.

"How many of these are there?" Elena asked as she took it from him.

"I could tell you that," Stefan told her. "But then Damon would probably murder me."

"Why?" Elena said, seeming slightly amused.

"Because I'm not allowed to ruin anything for you or for him," Stefan responded.

As Elena opened up the envelope, she wondered how he could ruin something for Damon.

Stefan seemed to notice the confused look on her face as he said, "He doesn't want me telling him anything about your reactions."

"I bet he regrets saying that one now that he's sitting at home waiting," Elena commented as she unfolded the letter.

* * *

_Okay, so the whole finding out from Stefan thing…_

_Just because I decided that I had to break up with you, it didn't make it any easier to do. I kept seeing you and then wimping out. I'd dodge you and then decide that I'd do it later, that it was the wrong time then or that if I went over that I wouldn't be able to go through with it._

_But then I was moping at home before I had broken up with you, and Stefan asked what was going on. And me and him had just gotten back on good terms, so I didn't want to keep hiding things from him, but at the same time I didn't want to tell him everything. And before I even knew what I was doing, it just came flying out of my mouth that we had already broken up._

_And by the time that I realized what I had done, it was already too late to take it back. So I decided that I'd just do it first thing the next day, before Stefan would get the chance to mention it to anybody._

_But then I wimped out again and convinced myself that I should wait. That it would be a dick move to do it right at the start of the day so that you could go to class upset and have to spend the whole school day dealing with it._

_Clearly my dodging helped you out so much._

_And the worst part is that as much as I felt guilty and sick and like complete shit when Stefan yelled at me after school that day, part of me was relieved to have had him do it instead so that I wouldn't have to see the look on your face or try to do it myself._

_And I realize that I'm only making myself look even worse by telling you this. But I'm done lying and hiding things from you. It never works out, no matter how good the intentions might be. And being honest with you has never come back to bite me in the ass, just being a jerk and lying have._

… _How do you even do that? You make everyone feel like they can tell you literally anything. I mean I told you so much stuff that I hadn't ever told anyone else before; some of it I haven't told anyone else since either. And Stefan told you about liking Matt way before he told anyone else…_

_I could never talk to Andie like I can to you. I mean it's not like she wasn't a nice girl or that she would have been a jerk about it or anything, but you're different. You make me want to tell you everything, even the stuff that I've been fighting to keep a secret._

_Like after the breakup I wanted so badly to tell you everything and I kept almost breaking, but I knew that I didn't deserve you. I said all of those horrible lies to try to convince you to move onto someone better and to try and keep you away because I couldn't handle being that close to you without trying to go back to the way that things were before._

_And every single time that I said something, seeing how much it hurt you made me want to punch myself in the face… Which would immediately make me think that I deserved you even less and that you needed to stay away from me. So then I would act even worse because I was too stupid and stubborn to realize that I was stuck in a pointless loop that made zero sense._

_And the whole time I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself while I dug myself deeper and deeper into my own mess. And I really didn't want to go to Tyler Lockwood's party, but I knew that if I stayed at home moping the chances of Ric staying home from his first date with Jenna after their big fight that I caused were too big to risk. That and I had just told everyone in the school about my dad and I knew that hiding would only make things worse._

_And at that point I was so mad at myself for so many things and I took it out on you when you hadn't done anything wrong. But then Jeremy came asking if I had seen you and saying that no one knew where you were and I went into full panic mode because I really couldn't even handle the idea of anything happening to you._

_I said that I'd go look outside. And well, we both know what I found._

_That is by far the angriest and most concerned that I have ever been and probably is the most that I ever will be. It was like my mind couldn't even function properly and, as much as this takes away from my whole tough guy thing that I've got going, I was two milliseconds away from crying._

_And then you asked why I was even upset about what had happened and said that you thought that I hated you. And it wasn't in your usual challenging way where you were trying to point out that I was being hypocritical or trying to make me admit something. You really believed that I hated you and, even if that had been my goal when I had told you that I did, I felt like dying when you said it._

_I meant what I said. I don't hate you. I never have and I never will, no matter what you do. Okay? Because I'm head over heels in love with you and I'm always going to be. Nothing is ever going to change that even if I spend my entire life sitting on the sidelines because of my mistakes._

_That's not a joke by the way. I will always be there for you when you need something, whether you like it or not. You could be married to someone else and have two dozen horrible children and I'd drop everything to emergency babysit for you. You end up needing a kidney donor? Take mine. I'm more of a liver guy anyways._

* * *

Elena couldn't help a smile from forming on her lips as she remembered back to the first night that he had shown up at her house when Jenna had been afraid that he was a serial killer and he had heard the entire conversation from Jeremy's room.

Jenna had asked if Elena was sure that she wasn't going to wake up the next morning in a dirty bathtub two towns over with a missing a kidney. Elena had told Jenna that Damon was more into selling livers on the black market since they were worth more.

Elena looked back down at the page and continued to read.

* * *

_And speaking of that night…_

* * *

That was it. That was how the letter ended.


	34. Chapter 34

Elena frowned. She didn't like this whole waiting business. Now that she knew what the next letter was going to start saying something about the first night that he had come over, she couldn't help but wonder what it could possibly have to say about it.

* * *

When class ended, Elena went to her locker to find Caroline waiting there with an envelope in hand.

Caroline smirked over at Elena as she handed over the envelope.

Elena opened her locker and put her binder down before opening up the envelope on the spot.

* * *

_I've already told you about the moment when I realized that I was completely in love with you, but let's face it, I can be pretty damn oblivious sometimes._

_That was just the moment that I finally figured it out. By that point I had already been in love with you for a long time._

_I've been in love with you since that first night at your house. I mean I was a total mess when I showed up at your place. I had no idea where I was even going until I ended up on your street and then I was honestly about two seconds from turning around and leaving when you saw me and came to the door. And I'm so glad that you did because I honestly don't know if I would have stayed or not otherwise and I would have been so much worse off if I hadn't._

_And you didn't even ask any questions or try to brag about being right. Instead you just hugged me and asked me to come inside. Even when you did ask whether I wanted to talk about it, you instantly dropped it as soon as I said that I didn't._

_Most people never would have done that. They would have just pried and been uncomfortable in that situation. But instead you didn't do any of that or try to pretend that you understood when you didn't. You somehow managed to say that you knew that you didn't understand it while telling me that you did get it to some extent and that made me want to tell you so badly. But I was way too scared to at that point. I was way too afraid to have anybody find out. But somehow you still managed to make me comfortable enough that I did everything but tell you and you still didn't push._

_And somehow you managed to distract me from being a crying mess and made me feel a thousand times better. One second I was trying to stop crying like an idiot and the next second you have me laughing at one of your jokes._

_I already had so many reasons to be falling for you at that point and then you let me stay the night with no questions asked._

_When I rolled over to find Jenna staring at me, I was sure that I was going to get kicked out. But then I heard you two talking in her room and the way that you were joking around with her while she was having her little Jenna episode and that's when I really fell hard._

_Honestly, how was I not supposed to fall in love with you after all of that?_

… _I could give you a hint for what I'm going to talk about next, but that seems like kind of a dick move to give you the start and then leave you hanging, so I won't…_

* * *

Elena resisted the strong urge to roll her eyes at that last sentence. Sure it had driven her a little crazy trying to figure out what the next letter was going to say about whatever he had hinted at, but it was almost as bad not having any idea of what was going to come next.

Elena closed her locker and then headed towards the cafeteria with Caroline by her side.

"So what did it say?" Caroline asked curiously as they walked.

"I'm surprised that you didn't just read it over my shoulder," Elena commented.

"I would have, but you were standing at a really bad angle for that," Caroline responded honestly.

"I'll explain what it said later," Elena told her. "It's a little complicated to explain right now."

It honestly was since Elena would have to catch Caroline up on everything that had happened leading up to that night as well as during that entire night and she knew that Caroline would have a plethora of questions to ask about it.

* * *

When they entered the cafeteria, Elena barely managed to sit down before Kol passed her an envelope across the table.

"Lover Boy wanted me to give you this," Kol told her.


	35. Chapter 35

Elena began to open up the envelope while trying to hide her eagerness from the others at the table.

* * *

_While we're still on the whole cheese ball day thing, I think that there's still a whole bunch of things that I need to say. Like all of the reasons that I'm in love with you._

_I love you because of that adorable little laugh you have when you think that something is really funny, but you're embarrassed to show it._

_I love you because of your smile._

_I love you because of your lame jokes that I really shouldn't think are funny, but I find hilarious._

_I love you because of the fact that you're always trying to see the best in people._

_I love you because you know how to keep a secret._

_I love you because you're always trying to help people._

_I love you because you know how to make me feel better in an instant._

_I love you because you aren't embarrassed to act like a total goof._

_I love you because… Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? Because you're gorgeous._

* * *

As Elena read, she couldn't quite keep a little smile from forming on her lips.

"Oh my god," Bonnie said excitedly as she stared at her friend. "You're smiling. And not just normal smiling, but embarrassed smiling!"

"She's right," Caroline said as she narrowed her eyes at her friend. "And now you're blushing! …What's he saying?"

Before Elena had the chance to say anything, both of the girls had gotten up and moved to stand behind Elena and read over her shoulder.

Within seconds they were grinning like idiots.

"Well apparently whatever he's saying is working on those two," Kol commented.

* * *

_I love you because of your brown doe eyes that I can't quite make myself look away from._

_I love you because of the way that you can convince me to do almost anything for you… Who am I kidding? You can convince me to do anything._

_I love you because you bring out the best in me… Most of the time, except for when I'm a complete idiot. But that's my fault._

_I love you because when you found out about my dad you didn't act different or awkward around me like most people did at first. Instead you made me feel like there was actually a chance that I could be normal again._

_I love you because even if sometimes I don't end up telling you things for a very long time, I feel like I could tell you anything._

_I love you because you believed in me when you had no reason to and when no one else (including me) did._

_I love you because you never gave up on me._

_I love you because twins are hot. And so are cheerleaders._

* * *

A ridiculous grin formed on Elena's face at that as she began to laugh uncontrollably.

That last one had come out of nowhere after a bunch of serious stuff and it had surprised her more than a little. She wasn't entirely sure that the 'twins are hot' thing really applied when her twin was a guy, which just made it funnier to her.

Caroline and Bonnie reached the same point a few seconds after her and smirked along with her.

The others had no idea what Elena had found so funny, but they were all amused by how much Damon had somehow made her laugh without even being there.

* * *

_I love you because I can't stop thinking about you even when I try to. And because I don't want to stop thinking about you._

_I love you because you're ridiculously forgiving. And no, that isn't my passive aggressive way of trying to make you forgive me again. It's just the truth. Nobody else would have forgiven me for half of the stuff that I put you through. (Have I mentioned that I'm sorry lately?)_

_I love you because you know when to be serious and when to act like a total dork._

_I love you because you make me smile._

_I love you because you somehow managed to turn me into the cheesiest guy on Earth._

_And I love you because you saved me._

_I love everything about you and I could go on listing off reasons forever if you wanted me to. But it also seems like you might want to spend some of your time on other things and I still have more things to say, so I'm going to stop for now._

* * *

As much as Elena tried to deny it to herself, Damon's plan was starting to work on her.

Elena had barely put that letter away when another envelope was shoved into her face by Bonnie.

"You can eat first if you want," Bonnie commented as Elena took the envelope.

Elena ignored the comment as she opened up the envelope. How was she supposed to eat when there was another letter right there just waiting for her to read it.

Caroline smirked over at her friend from where she had sat back down across the table.

"Stop giving me that look," Elena told her.

"Make me," Caroline said with a grin.

Elena grabbed a fry off of Jeremy's plate and threw it at the blonde, hitting her in the face.

"Fine," Caroline said. "But someone seems a little too defensive if you ask me."

Elena made a mental note to later ask Caroline when she had become so incredibly team Damon. After all, it wasn't that long ago that she had been teasing Elena about supposedly liking Kol, Elijah, and Damon all at the same time.

* * *

Damon was at home unable to sit still. He was fidgeting just as often as he had when he was waiting to hear news about Elena after she had gone to the hospital.

He decided to look at the clock again to see that less than three minutes had gone by since he had last checked, which had felt like an eternity ago.

It was still only lunch time. How could this day be dragging out to be this long?

Damon debated texting Stefan to get just a little hint about Elena's reactions, but he also knew that he wanted to be surprised later and find out from her directly.

Besides, even if he did try to ask Stefan, he was sure that he wouldn't actually be provided with an answer. He had told Stefan not to give anything away even if he did ask, so there wasn't even really any point in trying.

Originally Damon had thought that letters would be a better idea than talking face to face since he could have more of a chance to prepare what he wanted to say and so that he would be less likely to forget something. Also he figured that Elena was more likely to listen to it all instead of stopping him if it was in the form of letters. Plus it would give her more of a chance to think about it and put her on the spot less.

Even though he knew that those reasons still made sense, he was finding himself strongly debating just leaving the house right then to find Elena and tell her the rest of the stuff in person so that he wouldn't have to wait any longer for her response.

He decided against it though since he had no right to be that selfish and since he deserved to have to wait for a response considering how long he had made Elena wait for an explanation.


	36. Chapter 36

_Seriously, where would I be without you? I honestly have no idea, but I know that whatever situation I would be in would be a million times worse than this one._

_I probably wouldn't have Alaric or Maddie right now… Or even Stefan. He'd probably completely hate me and refuse to even be around me._

_I'd probably still be living with my dad right now because I wouldn't want to leave and let him take out all of his anger on Stefan._

_Let's face it, without you my life would be terrible._

_I'd probably be getting beat on a daily basis as a best case scenario. But honestly, who even knows if I'd be alive at this point or not otherwise._

* * *

Elena felt a pang of anger and sadness as she read that. She couldn't even imagine the idea of a world without Damon.

* * *

_And even if I was still alive, it would be a pretty damn crappy existence._

_Even if I hadn't screwed everything up, I would already owe you so much. And if you give me the chance, then I will try every single day to make it up to you._

_And I know that right now these are just words on a page and there's no way that I can prove to you that I'm telling the truth. If I could somehow prove it to you right now, then I would. But I can't, so you can reject me and I can prove it to you over time, or you can take a risk on me._

_The choice is yours._

* * *

Elena put the letter away and noticed that everybody at the table was still staring at her.

She began to eat, hoping that they would look away then.

They all began to look away gradually over the course of the next few minutes.

* * *

Once Elena was done eating, she shot Bonnie and Caroline a single glance. The girls had been best friends for long enough that the other two instantly knew that it was a silent message that they needed to talk in private.

When all three girls stood up at the exact same time and headed towards the door, Kol asked, "What just happened?"

"They do that," Jeremy commented in response. "Eventually you get used to it."

* * *

"What's up?" Caroline instantly asked once the girls were standing together in an empty hallway.

"Since when are you two all team Damon?" Elena asked.

"Since the first day that he came back to the caf and revealed that you'd been trying to get him there and somehow magically did. That is, if I remember properly…" Caroline responded with a tilted grin. "I mean there was some major flirting going on that day whether you denied it or not."

"That sounds about right," Bonnie agreed.

"No," Elena said in a slightly exasperated tone. "I meant when did you go back to team Damon."

"Well we left it when he was being a total dick and refused to give you any explanation whatsoever," Caroline began. "And then when he came back to town and Andie left you guys were starting to get flirty again…"

"Around the time that we asked you if there was something going on with him or not," Bonnie helped.

Elena remembered her friends' interrogation and how they were trying to get her to admit that there was at least one thing that made her want to take him back.

"But you guys were trying to find out if there was something going on with Elijah or Kol at the same time," Elena pointed out.

" _After_  you already said that you didn't want anything to happen with Damon again and told us to drop it," Bonnie pointed out.

"And I definitely remember saying that I bet that the guy you like is Damon," Caroline added. "Plus it was a big team Damon boost when I found out just how much he's been missing you and how much he cares about you."

"It is a boost," Elena admitted. "But I still don't know what I'm going to do."

"Well we can't tell you what to do," Bonnie told her. "Only you can make that decision."

"I know," Elena responded. "And it sucks. I mean I'm glad that he's finally telling me all of this stuff and the letters kind of make me want to go back to him. But it isn't that easy. So he's all cheesy and honest for one day? Who says that he won't go back to being a jerk tomorrow?"

"No one does," Caroline responded. "There's no way to know. You just have to decide whether you trust him and whether being with him is worth the risk or not."

"Yeah," Elena said quietly as she wondered what she should do.

"It's true that I would never get back together with him," Caroline commented. "But that's because my relationship with him was different. You guys were so perfect together and it's clear that you guys both still care about each other whether things worked out last time or not."

"Care, don't pressure her," Bonnie said.

If Elena was going to choose to be with Damon, then Bonnie wanted her to make that choice on her own instead of because of feeling pressured into it.

* * *

Elena had barely sat down in English class after lunch when she was handed yet another envelope by Rebekah.

Elena opened it up, wondering what more he could possibly have to say.

* * *

_On the night that Tyler attacked you I may not have ever called or anything to check up on you, but I was freaking out anyways and I was about two seconds from calling you or texting you or something to find out how you were doing._

_Seriously, I couldn't even really function because I was so worried about you... Ask Stefan or Ric about it. I drove them both completely insane by asking them if they had heard anything yet every two seconds. And I couldn't even sit still so I kept fidgeting and annoying them even more._

_They told me to text you myself and ask if I was so concerned, but I was too stubborn to listen and told them that I couldn't while refusing to provide any reason because to be honest I didn't exactly have one that was logical._

_Even when they did get texts I wasn't happy because I wanted more information than they had gotten from you and Jenna._

_And then they both told me that I had to try and sleep, but I refused to. How was I supposed to sleep when all that I could do was worry about you and whether you were okay and think about how much I hated Tyler Lockwood._

_That's when Stefan started demanding that I give him actual answers about what was going on with the breakup and everything when all I did was mope over you and worry about you. Before that I think that he had been tiptoeing around the subject because he didn't want to make me start ignoring him again. But apparently his need to figure out what the hell was going on took over at that point._

_I didn't want to answer him so I claimed to be tired and tried to go to bed and stop thinking about it, but I couldn't even get anywhere close to sleep. All I could do was think about you._

_After a while I ended up getting back up and I ended up keeping Alaric up talking to him for a long time while avoiding admitting what had even gone on with the breakup and while trying to pretend that I didn't still care about you that way even though it was pretty damn obvious in that conversation that I did._

_I'm pretty sure that the main reason that Ric couldn't sleep was because he knew that I was a mess and he was worried about me._

_He asked if I was going to see you, but I claimed that I couldn't. I wanted to go show up at your house right then to make sure that you were okay, but I still refused to go._

_Ric never tries to push things when I avoid subjects, but that was probably the one time that he ever did. He asked why I couldn't go._

_I said that it was hard to explain and tried to avoid explaining, but somehow I ended up half explaining it the way that I explained what was happening with my dad to you that first night. I said a whole bunch of crap that made no sense to him without context._

_And then when he went over to your place the next day I made him make sure that you were okay and find out how you were doing for me, but told him not to tell you that I was asking or concerned._

_I know that I'm bad at showing it sometimes, but I really do care about you and I have no idea what I would do if I had to live without ever getting to see you again._

* * *

Elena had already known about most of that from Alaric secretly telling her about how Damon was concerned but didn't want her to know. Still it was nice to actually hear it from Damon himself and not as sneaked information from someone else.

Elena decided that she could really get used to this whole honesty thing as she put the envelope away.

* * *

When Elena walked into last class, History, she immediately noticed that Alaric seemed to be looking at her to try and figure out what decision she was going to make.

He put an envelope on her desk as she sat down in it.

Alaric went to go sit back down at his own desk as Elena opened up the letter.

* * *

_I don't have anything touching or witty to say in this letter to be honest. There's one more after this, but I have that saved for a specific person._

_I just kind of told Alaric that he could help, so I had to find a way to include him somehow and I figured that you'd already have enough of my stuff to deal with, that you didn't need me to give you any more long stories or whatever._

_So if you could just fake some kind of reaction while you read this then that would be great. Just act like I'm saying something really funny or something that makes you cry or maybe you're outraged by whatever I'm saying._

* * *

Elena began to laugh as a smile formed on her face. It wasn't a fake smile or laugh; it was because what he'd had to say had actually been hilarious to her.

* * *

_Maybe you should even pile it on a little thick so that he thinks that he must have gotten the really good letter._

* * *

Elena's smile widened automatically.

* * *

_Man, I must be a really good writer if I've got you this worked up over it. Alaric must be pretty damn impressed right now if you're humouring me._

_If you aren't humouring me, then this must be pretty damn awkward right now. Although at least it looks like you're reading something. But still, you'd have no reaction and I must seem like a total asshole during this letter if you don't want to play along._

* * *

Elena let out another real giggle.

* * *

_I bet that Alaric's staring at you right now. I bet you five dollars that if you look up he'll be looking right at you and watching your every reaction and overanalyzing it like a teenage girl._

* * *

Elena looked up and her grin widened ever farther as she saw that Damon was right and Alaric was in fact looking over at her intently. After a few seconds of her looking up, he turned away and made a futile attempt at pretending that he hadn't totally been staring at her.

Elena looked back down and began to read once again.

* * *

_Did you check? Was I right? If I was then you can always pretend that you didn't really take the bet even if you did. I mean it's not like I was there to know anyways. Or you could pretend that you won, I don't mind being out five bucks. And whether he is staring right now or not, I'm not there to see it. So you could really say whatever you want about it to me later._

* * *

Elena chanced a quick glance up to see that Alaric was staring at her once again.

* * *

_Hmm, I'm running out of things to say to make it look like I wrote a nice long letter that was emotion filled..._

_So what's your day been like so far?_

* * *

Elena laughed a little and rolled her eyes.

* * *

_... Interesting. Mine's probably been a little stressful from having to wait all day. I mean let's face it, I'm probably pretty impatient right now and fidgeting like the night you were in the hospital._

… _What's the weather like? I hear that it's supposed to be pretty sunny on your birthday, which I guess now to you is today._

_I feel like I've filled up enough space for it to seem like I could have said something really deep somewhere in here, which I know for a fact that I haven't._

* * *

Elena could not stop smiling.

* * *

_I'm going to shut up now and let you get back to whatever your class is actually supposed to be doing right now. I mean it must be at least a little awkward for the rest of the class to just sit there while you read something and react really expressively to it and while Ric just stares at you... I mean either that or you're bored and possibly not even reading anymore and all that I'm doing is making you fall behind in class._

_Yeah, I'm done now._


	37. Chapter 37

When Elena reached the parking lot after school, she found that the car was gone and Jeremy had already left without her. She wondered if Jeremy had asked to drive that morning just so that he would have the keys and would be able to leave her behind.

She was about to try to call her brother, when Kol and Rebekah walked up behind her.

"You're leaving with us today," Kol said before walking past her.

Elena followed behind them, still confused as to what was going on.

She didn't figure out what was going on until they got into Elijah's car and he turned towards her and held out a letter.

"Really?" Elena asked. "You're in on this too?"

She had known that they had both decided that there was nothing more than friendship between them, but it still kind of came as a shock that Elijah had agreed to become a part of Damon's plan.

When Elijah didn't offer up any explanation, Elena opened up the envelope.

* * *

_I bet that you're wondering why I saved the last letter specifically for Elijah of all people._

_Well, that's because Caroline kind of failed at keeping a secret. I found about the date that you two went on from her._

_That night Caroline was working on a project with Stefan and accidentally let it slip. And let's just say that I did not take it well at all._

_I had no right to be jealous when I was the one who broke up with you, especially after that much time had gone by and since I had come back to town with Andie before that. And yet I still couldn't even get a hold of myself whatsoever._

_I was so mad at him that night whether it made any sense or not and I developed an illogical hatred for him. …By the way, I don't hate him anymore in case you were wondering._

_I told you that I punched a wall and that's why my hand was bandaged up, but I never told you the reason why... That was it. I just completely lost control of myself and ended up punching a big hole through the wall and made my hand bleed all over the place._

_Caroline cleaned up my hand and then I decided to go to bed and feel sorry for myself for a change._

_But then a certain five year old genius came running in a while later to tell me that apparently you two kissed, but it was weird for both of you. I said that it didn't matter, that you were still kissing someone else and that maybe the next time it wouldn't be weird._

_And then she said the one thing that I was too stupid to realize on my own. She said exactly._

_It took that one word for me to realize just how incredibly stupid I was still being and how if I wanted you back I had to actually do something to try to deserve you and convince you instead of sitting around and hoping that you would just change your mind._

_And that was when I decided to do all of this because I knew that I couldn't just sit around and watch you move on to someone else without even putting up a fight._

_I know that you said that we'd be better off staying just friends now, but let's be honest with ourselves. We were never just friends and I think that's part of why I'm so bad at trying to be._

_We jumped straight from more of acquaintances really to being basically dating without admitting it to ourselves yet._

* * *

Elena was shocked to find out that Damon had known about the date with Elijah, although it wasn't overly surprising that Caroline had let the information slip.

As much as Elena loved Caroline, she knew that her friend wasn't always the best at keeping a secret to herself.

Elijah didn't begin driving until Elena had put the letter away in her bag.

Elena found that strange and wondered if Elijah had been trying to stall for some reason.


	38. Chapter 38

They drove for a few minutes before they pulled into the parking lot of a building.

Elena saw Damon's car and felt herself get excited. She still wasn't sure what she was going to do, so there was also a ball of nerves in her stomach.

Elijah opened his mouth to say something, but Elena was already out of the car and headed for the door.

* * *

When Elena walked inside she was surprised to find Klaus and Caroline sitting there waiting for her.

"Where is he?" Elena immediately asked, causing Caroline to smirk.

Elena had been waiting for long enough, she needed to see him in person.

"In there," Caroline said, gesturing towards a door.

Elena felt her heartbeat speed up as she walked to the door, trying to keep herself at a normal pace.

When she opened the door and saw him, she couldn't keep a smile from forming on her lips although she wasn't entirely sure of why.

She could feel all of the reservations that she was holding onto trying to slip away.

All day she had been so torn and had found it so difficult to make a decision, but standing there she felt an overwhelming urge to run over to him and kiss him.

Damon looked over at her with a sheepish smile and she could see how nervous he was.

Elena slowly walked over to him, forcing herself to remain under control. Once she got close, she saw that there was another letter in his hand.

"You're a liar," Elena told him.

A look of confusion and concern formed on Damon's face.

"You said that there was only one more letter two ago," She pointed out.

Relief washed over Damon as he smirked and joked, "Sorry, I can't count."

Elena took the letter and was about to open it, but she hesitated at the last minute and then handed it back to him.

"I've done enough reading today," She told him. "I want you to tell me what this one says."

Damon let out a slightly embarrassed laugh.

"What?" Elena asked.

"This isn't the best one for that," Damon commented.

"Well it can't be as awkward as reading the one that Alaric gave me out loud," Elena pointed out with a teasing grin.

"No, but it's also not so deep," Damon told her. "It basically says that if you're going to reject me that I at least want you to get really mad and Hulk out because that way I either get to see evidence that somehow magically remain fully clothed the whole time, or I get to see you shirtless. That way it would be a win-win-win situation."

Elena rolled her eyes as she let out a quiet laugh.

"You saved the best one for last, didn't you?" She asked in an amused tone.

"Oh, clearly," Damon said sarcastically as he smirked. "…Hold on, I can probably think of something else that I didn't tell you yet."

Elena's smile grew as he tried to think of something.

"Oh," Damon said excitedly as he thought of something. "When Maddie first came here she figured out that I like you the instant that you walked in the Grill just by the way that I looked at you when you walked by. And basically the whole time that we were there she was asking me whole bunch of random questions and one of them was what my favourite superhero was. She wasn't very impressed when I told her that it was the Hulk. According to her the Hulk doesn't even do anything and she didn't believe me when I said that the Hulk saved me. And I might have revealed your secret identity to her, but she's pretty good at keeping a secret."

"Well, there's a chance that I might have lied to you about being the Hulk anyways," Elena pointed out.

"I thought of another one," Damon told her. "I told you about punching the wall, but I didn't tell you about the fact that afterwards I found out that Maddie was standing in the doorway and saw it. And she was terrified of me. She looked at me like I used to look at my dad when he was really angry. She went running to Stefan like she needed to be protected from me."

"You aren't like your dad," Elena instantly argued. "And she couldn't have been that scared if she came to find you and tell you about me and Elijah's kiss."

"She got over it pretty quickly," Damon admitted. "But I still don't like being the guy who scares little kids… And it looks like apparently I missed enough stuff that I could have given an actual letter to Ric."

"You're basically Maddie's favourite person from what I've seen," Elena pointed out. "And I like hearing you actually say some of the stuff too."

* * *

Caroline walked over to the door and peeked in to see if she could figure out if anything had happened yet. Unfortunately, all she saw was that they were talking.

"What are you doing?" Klaus asked in an amused tone.

"They're taking too long," Caroline complained as she stepped away from the doorway. "I'm impatient. I want to know if they're getting back together or not now."

Klaus chuckled a little.


	39. Chapter 39

"I can't do this," Elena told him before turning to head towards the door.

Damon couldn't deny the fact that he was disappointed by that, but it wasn't like he hadn't considered that as being a very possible outcome of his plan.

"Okay, but two things before you go," Damon told her. "First, Caroline will murder us both if you leave and don't go to the party that she set up. Second, Maddie will bring me back to life after the Caroline murder and then kill me again if I don't give you the card that she made you."

He walked over and caught up to her and Elena noticed that he wasn't wearing the sad puppy face that she had been expecting him to be.

"Well I wouldn't want to get you murdered twice," Elena told him.

"Good," Damon said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a homemade card.

As Elena took it from him she saw that Maddie had drawn balloons and presents all over the front of the card in various colours of crayon.

When she opened it up, Elena saw 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELENA' in giant letters taking up the entire inside.

A big grin formed on her lips as she looked up at Damon and asked, "Jeremy doesn't get one?"

"She doesn't like Jeremy very much," Damon told her. "But if you want I could try and find some crayons and forge him a card. I mean if you want to make him feel better."

"I think that he's probably okay without one," Elena answered. "So are you coming to the party too?"

"Of course," Damon responded. "You can't get rid of me, remember?"

"Right answer," Elena said before wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him into a kiss.

Elena's whole exit had been a sort of test. If Damon had reverted into feeling sorry for himself and giving up again, then she would have been telling the truth when she had said that she couldn't do this. But the fact that he had followed after her and shown her that, at least for now, he still wasn't planning on ever giving up had been the final push factor that had made Elena's decision for her.

Damon was surprised by the kiss, but thrilled. He began to smile against her lips as he kissed her back.

When Elena pulled away from him a long time later she told him, "I love you too, you big idiot."

All that Damon was capable of doing at that point was smiling like an idiot at her.

"Come on," Elena said as she grabbed one of his hands. "If Caroline just planned a party, then I can guarantee that she's in the mood to freak out over almost anything. I wouldn't want to get uninvited to my own party for being late."

"We could always say that it was my fault," Damon told her with a smirk as they began to head for the door.

"We'd probably just both be in trouble," Elena responded as she opened the door.

* * *

A giant smirk formed on Caroline's lips as she all but forgot about all of the waiting that she had just been put through. She was too distracted by the fact that Damon and Elena were holding hands and wearing matching grins.

"Go ahead, say it," Elena told her friend.

"Me and Bonnie were so right about you two  _again_ ," Caroline gloated. "We've been calling this for how long?"

Elena rolled her eyes and shook her head as her grin widened against her will.

"Oh, that's right," Caroline continued, ignoring her friend's reaction. "Since you two started talking again after Jenna went into her coma. So, I mean at least we only figured it out recently because that would be really awkward for you if we figured out who you liked long before you did… Twice."

"Shut up," Elena said as she playfully hit her friend in the shoulder. "And who says that you figured out before me last year?"

"You lying bitch," Caroline accused with a laugh.

"Oh, I'm sorry Miss 'the day that I go on a date with Klaus Mikaelson will be the day that I die'," Elena shot back with a big grin.

"You did not just bring that up in front of him!" Caroline replied, although the beaming smile still remained on her face.

"So what if I did?" Elena asked with an innocent shrug. "What are you going to do about it?"

"I'm just going to remind you of a certain conversation in your kitchen where you were denying that you liked Damon and then proceeded to basically shout out that you found him ridiculously attractive, but it wasn't your fault for having eyes," Caroline answered.

Caroline was talking about the year before when she and Damon weren't even together yet for the first time.

"Damon was there, in the next room," Elena pointed out, although she still found it embarrassing. "He heard it and then felt the need to bring it up a few hours later."

"Yeah, and you're lucky that it's your birthday or else I would have said worse," Caroline told her.

"Like what?" Elena challenged.

"Hey, Elena," Caroline said with a big grin. "At the dance last year when you were asking Stefan-"

"Okay, fine," Elena said. "Don't say it."

"What? That when you were asking Stefan who he liked and he wouldn't answer you, for a minute you were pretty damn convinced that it was because it was you?" Caroline asked in a teasing tone before Elena had the chance to stop her. "Or that during that minute you were completely horrified by the idea?"

"You're the worst," Elena told her with an embarrassed smile. "And maybe I didn't want to find out that Stefan liked me on the same night that I started dating Damon."

"Still, it was a pretty self-obsessed assumption to make," Caroline commented playfully.

"Well he was afraid to tell me so it had to be someone that I talk to," Elena defended herself. "And he had already rejected Rebekah that night. And he said that it wasn't you or Bonnie."

"I know, I've already heard this explanation a few times," Caroline said with a grin. "Now let's go to your party before it turns into just Jeremy's and we miss the whole thing."


	40. Chapter 40

When the four entered the party, Elena saw that basically everyone was there.

Jeremy, Bonnie, Rebekah, Kol, Elijah, Matt, and Stefan were all there plus Caroline, Klaus, and Damon who had walked in with Elena.

"Bored of me already?" Elena asked as Damon pulled out his cell phone.

"Not a chance," Damon told her. "I'm just texting Alaric to tell Maddie so that I don't get demoted from my status as her favourite fake brother. It's a title that I'm not willing to let Stefan take."

Maddie had threatened Damon with that early that morning when she had told him that she wanted to know as soon as he did.

* * *

Alaric looked down at his phone and then turned to Maddie.

"Damon says that she said yes," Alaric told her.

"I want to talk to him," Maddie demanded. "Call him."

* * *

Damon received a response within seconds.

* * *

**From Alaric:**

_Congratulations and she wants me to let her call you._

* * *

Damon didn't bother texting back and instead dialled Alaric's number quickly.

* * *

"I feel like I'm missing something," Jenna said to Alaric as he handed Maddie the ringing phone.

"Yeah, that's because Damon had a big plan to get Elena back and everyone kept it from you since we know that you can't keep a secret from her," Alaric responded.

A smile formed on Jenna's lips when she realized what the 'Damon says that she said yes' had meant, but then a frown formed on her lips and she hit Ric in the arm.

"I can so keep a secret from her," Jenna told him.

"Oh really?" Alaric challenged.

"Well I didn't tell her about-" Jenna began before moving to whisper something not so appropriate in his ear.

"That would make sitting in a classroom with her pretty awkward afterwards if you told her," Alaric responded.

* * *

"Did you give her my card?" Maddie asked.

"Yeah, she thought that it was great," Damon told her.

"I bet that she liked it better than your letters," Maddie challenged.

"I don't know, she seemed to like those too," Damon pointed out. "It's probably a tie."

"Well then why don't you ask her which one was better?" Maddie asked.

"I'm not going to ask her that," Damon responded.

"Why not?" Maddie asked. "Are you scared?"

Damon rolled his eyes a little before turning towards Elena.

"She wants to know whether her card or my letters were better," Damon told his girlfriend.

"Her card, definitely," Elena said with a teasing grin. "The letters were really good, but the card was above the top."

"You were right," Damon said into the phone. "She liked yours better even though the letters were really good."

"I told you so," Maddie pointed out.

"Yeah, you did," Damon agreed. "I have to go Maddie; I'll talk to you later."

"Wait," Maddie said. "Why do you have to go?"

"Because I'm at Elena's birthday party and currently ignoring her," Damon responded.

"There's other people there too," Maddie pointed out.

"I have to go," Damon tried again.

"But Damon," Maddie whined.

"Hey, can you put Uncle Ric on for me?" Damon asked. "I have something really important that I have to tell him."

"Okay," Maddie said reluctantly before turning to her uncle. "He wants to talk to you, apparently it's important."

"What's up?" Alaric asked after taking the phone from Maddie.

"Nothing really, you're just a lot easier to hang up on than her," Damon admitted.

"Thanks," Alaric said sarcastically. "What, I'm not cute enough?"

"I think that you're adorable Ric," Damon told him with a big smirk.

Alaric let out a loud laugh before saying, "Thanks, I guess."

"Bye," Damon said before abruptly hanging up on him.

He turned to see Elena smirking over at him.

"It's because her card was colourful, isn't it?" Damon asked her.

"That's got to be it," Elena agreed before pulling him into a kiss.

* * *

After the party, Jeremy Matt, Stefan, and Kol were all going over to Matt's house and sleeping there as a continuation of Jeremy's half of the birthday party.

"Don't do anything that I wouldn't do tonight," Damon told his brother in a teasing tone. "No sneaking off for a little sexy time with your boyfriend if I'm not getting any tonight."

"So what you're saying is that if something starts happening that I should stop and call you to check if you're getting laid so I know whether I'm allowed to continue or not?" Stefan asked in an amused tone. "So then do you have to call me and check too?"

"Exactly," Damon said with a smirk. "I'll only get laid tonight if you do and you-" He poked his brother in the chest. "-Only have sex if I do."

* * *

When the party was over, Damon led Elena to his car.

"So where are we going?" Elena asked him. "Or am I allowed to know?"

"I'll give you a hint," Damon told her. "You live there."

"Hmm," Elena said, pretending to have to really think hard about what the correct answer could be. "Could it be maybe my house?"

"You have an astounding talent for that," Damon told her with a grin. "Really, you should go on game shows."

"So what are we doing when we get there?" Elena asked him.

"I still haven't made you chili yet," Damon reminded her. "That and I thought that I'd make you something edible for dinner on your birthday."

"I know that you said that it's the one thing that you can make well," Elena responded. "But it doesn't exactly inspire confidence when you say that you thought that you'd make me something edible for dinner."

"It could have been worse," Damon pointed out. "I could have said semi-edible… Or that Jenna was cooking."

"True," Elena responded with a grin.

"Besides, if it's really bad then we can order something in or go to the Grill," Damon told her. "I wouldn't want to poison you on your birthday."

"Oh, but it's alright any other day?" Elena challenged.

"No, it would just be especially bad today," Damon told her.

* * *

"So what was that thing before that you said you didn't tell Elena about?" Maddie asked Jenna. "The thing that would be embarrassing for Uncle Ric."

Maddie had assumed that it must be embarrassing if it would be awkward being around Elena after she found out.

Jenna avoided answering as she looked to Alaric for help.

"That's a secret for a reason," Alaric answered for her.

"It's not nice to keep secrets," Maddie pointed out, even though she had kept many for Damon. "What is it?"

She turned back to Jenna and used her saddest eyes.

Jenna knew that she had to tell Maddie something, so she quickly made something up.

"I didn't tell Elena about the fact that he has a secret pair of pink pants as tight as the kind that Damon wears," Jenna lied. "And he wears them sometimes, but just around me."

Maddie began to laugh as Alaric wondered why Jenna had felt the need to pick that as the fake secret.


	41. Chapter 41

When they arrived at Elena's house, both got out of the car and began to head towards the front door.

Damon ran a few steps ahead and moved to go open the door for her. Unfortunately for him, the door knob did not turn and the door did not open.

"Oh, so now you're opening my doors for me?" Elena asked with a big grin. "Too bad that it's locked."

Elena pulled the keys to her house out of her purse and moved in front of Damon to unlock the door.

"Right, that would make sense," Damon said as he moved out of the way.

"Okay, now you can open it for me," Elena teased as she took a step backwards.

Damon stepped in front and happily opened the door and held it for her.

"What a gentleman," Elena said before pulling him into a kiss.

Damon kissed her back as he let the door close behind them.

"Now make me my dinner, Slave Boy," Elena teased him.

"New nickname?" Damon asked, clearly unphased by it.

"You like it?" Elena asked him as she headed towards the kitchen in front of him.

"I like everything that you say," Damon told her.

"Really?" Elena asked interestedly. "What if I said that I hate puppies?"

"Then I would tell you that I think that it's a cute little quirk," Damon responded.

"I like having Captain Cheeseball back," Elena told him. "He's my favourite."

"And you're my favourite," Damon responded.

"I forgot how much I missed all of this," Elena told him. "And you."

"I missed you too," Damon responded to her. "More than I even knew."

* * *

"You're sure that this is edible, right?" Elena asked as Damon handed her a bowl of chili.

"You have so much confidence in me," Damon joked. "Want me to eat some first to make you feel better?"

Damon took a bite out of his own bowl for show.

"I was going to try it either way," Elena told him. "I know that you wouldn't dare try to give me something bad."

Elena scooped up a big spoonful of the chili and shovelled it into her mouth to prove her point that she trusted him.

"So?" Damon asked her expectantly.

"It's good," Elena told him honestly before moving to scoop up more.

"Good," Damon said with a big grin before going back to eating out of his own bowl.

As Elena ate, she managed to somehow get a whole glob of chili on her face.

Damon laughed a little as a blush creeped onto her face.

Damon reached across the table to wipe the food off of her face for her.

"That's embarrassing," Elena commented, looking down at the table.

"You look beautiful," Damon told her. "Even with food all over your face."

"I love you," Elena told him again.

"I love you too," Damon replied with a big smile.

* * *

When they were done eating, Damon told Elena that he would clean everything up.

"You really think that I'm going to just sit here and watch you clean up by yourself?" Elena asked him. "Yeah right."

* * *

As they were just finishing washing the dishes, Damon turned to Elena.

"What?" She asked when she noticed the look that he was giving her.

"Okay, I might have made one more teensy lie," Damon admitted.

"What?" Elena asked, suddenly getting a little worried.

"Turns out that I'm worse at counting than you thought because there might just be one more letter waiting for you upstairs," Damon told her.

"You are terrible at counting," Elena agreed with him as she turned to head out of the room for the stairs.

Elena skipped up the stairs as he followed behind her.

* * *

When Elena turned into her room, she saw an envelope sitting on the pillow of her bed. Damon had hidden it there when he had gone to go use the washroom earlier.

"Are you going to read this one out loud or do I have to read it myself?" Elena asked him.

"I'd prefer if you read it yourself, but…" Damon said with his most dazzling smile.

"Well then I guess that I will," Elena said as she grabbed the envelope up off of the pillow.

* * *

_I love you more than I ever knew that I could love anything and I'm not going to let anything else come between us. I want to be with you forever. I mean it._

_Turn around._

* * *

Elena finished reading and then turned to find Damon behind her on one knee with a ring in his hand.

"Are you crazy?" Elena asked him.

"Maybe a little," Damon responded with a shrug. "You make me that way."

"You don't have to do this to try and prove some kind of point, Damon," Elena told him as her mind became a whirlwind.

"I know that I don't have to," Damon responded with a tilted grin. "I want to. I want to spend the rest of my life with you and I want you and everybody else to know that. So Elena Gilbert, will you marry me?"

Somehow it felt both so sudden and not that sudden at all to Elena at the same time. Sure, when she woke up that morning, Elena had thought that he was still okay with being just friends with her. But they also had more than a little past together and even while they were apart the feelings had remained no matter how hard they had tried to get rid of them.

At that point Elena didn't care about what anybody else would think about it or whether they'd been apart that morning. All that she cared about was what her heart was screaming at her to do.

"Yes. As crazy as this might be I will," Elena responded, causing Damon to beam from ear to ear.

"We can be crazy together," Damon told her as he put the ring on her finger.

"Forever," Elena agreed. "…You must have been pretty confident today then if you have a ring and everything."

"Not at all," Damon told her honestly. "It was the longest day of my life waiting to see you and I was freaking out the entire time."

Elena pulled him in for a long kiss.

When it ended several minutes later, Elena leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"Just because I didn't Hulk out, that doesn't mean that you don't get to see me shirtless," She told him suggestively.

Damon arched an eyebrow at her as his grin tilted into a half smirk.

Before he had the chance to say anything in response, Elena had already pulled her shirt off over her head.

Damon silently wondered if he should text Stefan, but that idea quickly vanished from his mind as Elena's pressed her lips against his again.

They separated again for just long enough for her to remove Damon's shirt before they were kissing again as Elena pushed him back onto the bed. She landed on top of him and began to trail her hands down his chest towards the button of his jeans.

* * *

Stefan woke up about an hour after falling asleep and headed towards the stairs, avoiding the bodies of his sleeping friends on the floor as he walked.

They were all sleeping in the basement, so Stefan had to go back upstairs to get to the washroom.

* * *

Stefan turned out of the bathroom and was about to go back down to the basement when a very familiar figure appeared in the hallway.

Matt smiled when he saw the way that Stefan's hair was sticking up from his sleep.

"What?" Stefan asked, wondering what his boyfriend was grinning amusedly about.

Matt just simply kissed Stefan in response. It was the kind of kiss that very quickly could lead to something else.

When the kiss deepened, Stefan forced himself to pull away against his own wishes.

"Where are Jeremy and Kol?" Stefan asked him.

"They're asleep downstairs," Matt answered. "They don't even know that we're gone."

"Well in that case," Stefan said before resuming the make out session with Matt.

Stefan didn't care about the fact that his phone was downstairs or the fact that he wasn't telling Damon or checking with him. All that Stefan cared about at that point was Matt and not walking them into things while leading them towards Matt's bedroom without parting their lips.


	42. Chapter 42

The next morning, Damon woke up to find the other side of the bed empty.

He sat up to find that Elena was just finishing getting dressed to go to school.

"You're leaving already?" Damon asked as he wiped at his eyes in an attempt to wake up more than halfway.

"Yeah, I imagine that Caroline's going to have more than a few uncontainable questions today," Elena responded. "I figure that it's better to get them over with early."

Damon got up from the bed and moved to go get dressed.

"You don't have to get up," Elena told him. "I tried not to wake you up for a reason, so that you could sleep in."

"I'm driving you," Damon responded as he pulled his clothes on. "Jeremy and Jenna have the cars. Do you really think that I'm going to sleep here while you walk to school? Besides, if I drive you then I get more time with you."

"Well I guess I can't argue with that," Elena said as she pulled him in for a kiss.

* * *

"So how long do you think before people notice the ring?" Elena asked him as they drove towards the school.

"Caroline will probably instantly notice it from the opposite end of a hallway," Damon answered with a smirk. "And I think that she'll probably tip off anyone even remotely nearby with her reaction."

"Good point," Elena agreed as they turned into the school parking lot. "And I can't imagine how Jenna will react. I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of freaking out for several minutes while trying to make me explain everything that happened word for word."

Damon laughed a little as he pulled into a parking spot.

"It wouldn't be surprising," He agreed.

"And Caroline is already waiting for me by her car," Elena pointed out as she looked out the window of Damon's car. "Of course she would get here early just so that she could get to me with her questions the instant that I show up."

"Then I guess that I'd better let you leave," Damon commented as he pulled Elena in for another kiss. "I'll pick you up after school."

"Actually I have cheerleading practice after," Elena told him. "So I don't leave until 5:30."

"Well then I'll pick you up at 5:30," Damon responded with a smile.

"See you later," Elena said as she got out of the car.

Elena headed over to where Caroline was leaning against her car while smirking over at the other girl.

"Oooh, he drove you to school," Caroline said suggestively. "That implies that he never went home."

"Shut up," Elena said with a smile and a roll of her eyes.

Caroline was about to point out that Elena wasn't denying it when something shiny caught her eye.

"Oh my god," Caroline said as she snatched up Elena's hand with her own. "Damon proposed."

Caroline continued to stare down at the ring in shock.

"Yeah, he did," Elena told her.

"He definitely did not mention that part of the plan," Caroline commented before she finally managed to look back up from the ring. "How did he do it?"

* * *

Damon was a little surprised when he entered the house after spotting Alaric's car in the driveway to find that the other man wasn't up yet.

Damon headed towards Alaric's room to go get him up and opened the door without knocking before he thought it through.

"Ric!" Damon called out as he began to open the door.

When the door opened, Damon was shocked to find that Alaric wasn't alone in bed. Damon should have figured that out by the fact that Alaric had been with Jenna the night before and that Jenna hadn't been at Elena's place all night or morning, but it hadn't registered in Damon's mind until he had already walked into the room.

Alaric and Jenna were both lying in bed, barely covered by the sheets, when Damon entered the room and woke them up.

"Three things," Damon commented as he tried to pretend that it wasn't awkward for all of them. "One, you're going to be late for work. Two, Maddie's going to be late for kindergarten. And three, I'm going to go wake Maddie up and take her to school, so you two might want to put some clothes on."

Jenna rolled to bury her face in Alaric's chest in embarrassment as she began to laugh and Damon turned to head out of the room.

* * *

"I don't want to go to school today," Maddie whined after Damon woke her up by turning her bedroom light on.

"You think that you don't want to go now, wait until you're older," Damon said with a smirk. "Come on, Uncle Ric slept in so you're going to be late if you don't get ready really quickly."

"If I go then can we do something fun later?" Maddie asked, giving Damon her saddest eyes.

"I'm doing something with Elena later," Damon told her guiltily.

"But you did something with her yesterday," Maddie complained. "Can I at least come with you?"

"I don't think so," Damon responded. "I don't know if Elena would want you there and I kind of want to spend some time alone with her."

"But Damon!" Maddie whined in her shrillest tone.

"We can do something tomorrow, okay?" Damon asked, wanting Maddie to not be upset anymore.

"Damon!" Maddie shrieked. "I don't want to do something tomorrow!"

"Stop yelling," Damon begged. "Just please get ready for school."

"I'm not going!" Maddie shouted. "Go away!"

Maddie began to sniffle like she was about to cry.

"You don't even want to be near me anyways," Maddie continued. "You just want to spend all of your time with Elena instead."

"That's not true, Maddie," Damon told her, silently hoping that she wouldn't start crying.

"Then how come you won't do anything with me?" Maddie asked. "Does Elena hate me? Is that why you won't do anything with her and me at the same time?"

"No," Damon insisted. "Elena likes you. It's just that we just got back together so I think that maybe we should spend some time with just us before I start bringing you along. And I do want to hang out with you, Maddie, but I'm just busy tonight."

"Really?" Maddie asked as she seemed to calm down.

"Really," Damon told her. "How about you get dressed to go to school and then after school I take you to watch Stefan's football practice before I go out with Elena?"

"Okay," Maddie agreed as she got out of bed.

* * *

During Math class, Matt didn't seem to notice the ring at all. If he did he didn't say anything.

* * *

During next class, Chemistry, Stefan did in fact notice almost as quickly as Caroline had. Although he didn't comment, Elena noticed him spot it and smirk.

* * *

Caroline made sure that everyone else at the table noticed the ring the instant that Elena arrived at the table by excitedly grabbing Elena's hand and shoving it into Bonnie's face as she eagerly exclaimed, "Bonnie, look at this!"

Bonnie, as well as everyone else at the table, looked at the ring on Elena's hand.

"Well it looks like someone crawled out of the friendzone," Kol commented.

Jeremy stared at the ring in shock. That was one part of the plan that Damon had definitely not filled him in on. Jeremy wasn't upset about that though and was instead happy for his sister.

* * *

For the rest of the day the ring wasn't news to anybody else until Elena walked into her last class, History.

Alaric noticed it as Elena had her left hand positioned on her paper to hold it still while she wrote.

Alaric smirked a little and took a mental note of it as he walked to sit back down at his desk.

* * *

"What are you doing here?" Elena asked as she spotted Damon and Maddie after school.

"We came to watch Stefan's practice," Damon answered her. "I promise that it had nothing to do with the fact that I knew you'd be here in shorts."

"Right," Elena said sarcastically before giving Damon a kiss.

When they pulled apart, Damon was instantly hit in the side with a football.

Damon turned towards the football field to see his brother standing looking at him while he held up his hand and pointed at his finger with a confused look.

Damon picked up the football and threw it back at his brother hard enough that it went soaring above Stefan's head, just close enough for Stefan to be able to catch it.

"Apparently Stefan wants my attention," Damon commented. "I'll be back in a second."

Damon began to head towards his brother.

"You proposed to Elena," Stefan pointed out when Damon was close enough.

"Yeah," Damon agreed.

"And what, you just weren't going to tell me if she said no?" Stefan asked.

"I was going to tell you either way," Damon responded. "I was just cheesy and didn't want anybody else finding out before her."

"So you're engaged," Stefan commented as he puts his arms up for a hug. "Congratulations."

Damon hugged his brother back for a few long seconds.

When Damon pulled away Stefan instantly noticed the smirk on his brother's lips.

"By the way, I didn't call to check with you last night," Damon told his brother. "I was a little distracted at the time."

"Well that's alright," Stefan responded. "I didn't check with you either."

"You better not have gotten Matt pregnant," Damon said in a mock warning tone. "And you better not have let him knock you up either."

"You're a dick," Stefan commented although he had to grin a little at his brother's joke.

It was different when Damon made those kinds of jokes than when people like Tyler Lockwood did. Stefan knew that Damon was making them affectionately and not actually trying to upset him.

"Maybe a little bit of one," Damon admitted.

"I just hope that Elena didn't get you pregnant," Stefan told his brother with a big smirk.

Damon began to laugh as Mr. Tanner, the football coach, shouted out, "Salvatore, get over here."

"I'm guessing that he's talking to you," Damon commented.

"Yeah probably," Stefan replied as he turned around to head towards the coach.

Damon turned around to see Elena teaching a very excited Maddie part of the cheerleading routine.

A smile formed on Damon's lips as he headed back towards them.

"Come on, Maddie," Damon said when he got close. "Elena's practice has to start, let's go watch Stefan's."

"Carry me," Maddie told him.

Damon crouched down to give Maddie a piggy back ride.

"Jump on," He told her.

Maddie jumped up and wrapped her arms just below Damon's neck as he grabbed onto her legs.

Damon stood up and shared one last look with Elena before turning to head towards the bleachers.

* * *

"You're staring at Elena again," Maddie pointed out.

"I'm allowed to stare at her now," Damon responded. "She's mine."

"You can't own people," Maddie pointed out.

Damon chose not to correct the fact that it was in fact possible to own people in the case of slaves or children.

"Elena's mine," Damon told her. "And I'm hers at least as much."

* * *

After the practices were over, Damon gave Stefan the car to take Maddie home in before heading back over to Elena.

"What's a girl got to do to get carried like Maddie does?" Elena teased when Damon walked back over.

"Hop on," Damon told her.

"I was joking," Elena responded.

"Are you sure?" Damon asked. "You could have a free ride."

"Okay, I guess I'll take it," Elena said before jumping onto Damon's back.

Damon caught her easily as Elena leaned against his back and put her hands over his eyes.

"Well if I'm going to carry you home like this then you're going to have to give me directions," Damon told her.

"Turn around," Elena instructed and waited until he had done so. "Now walk forward until I tell you to stop."

Damon began to walk forward as he told her, "Keep in mind that if you walk me into something that there is a good chance that I'll fall on top of you or drop you."

"Why would I walk you into something?" Elena asked. "….Stop."

Damon instantly stopped walking.

"Turn right and then start walking again," Elena told him.

"This can't be safe," Damon commented. "Even if you're giving good instructions."

"Okay, stop again and turn your head," Elena instructed.

When Damon did so, Elena leaned over to kiss him.

As they kissed, Elena removed her hands from Damon's eyes and wrapped her arms over his shoulders to hold onto his chest.

* * *

The instant that the pair walked into the living room, Jenna noticed the ring.

"What's that on your finger?" Jenna asked even though she could clearly see what it was.

Elena held her hand up to show off the ring to Jenna.

Jenna looked from her niece to Damon and then back to Elena again with a big smirk.

"You have one hell of a story to tell me later," Jenna told Elena with a grin. "I heard that he had some plan and that you two are back together from Ric, but that's it."

"I'd better leave at a decent time then if you're planning on getting any sleep tonight," Damon said to Elena with a smirk.

"With Jenna's interrogation I'll be up all night explaining either way," Elena responded with a slight grin.

"Standing right here," Jenna pointed out.

"Oh come on, you know that it's true," Elena told her.

"True," Jenna admitted. "And now you can't complain about it taking all night."

Elena rolled her eyes as her aunt walked out of the room.

"So what do you want to do?" Elena asked once Jenna was gone.

"It doesn't matter as long as it's with you," Damon told her.

_The End._


End file.
